Kenya Chipu ready for Namibia test after seeing off Tunisia

Kenya Chipu tests their mettle against Namibia in the U20 Rugby Africa Barthes Cup tomorrow in the duel set for Zimbabwe’s Old Hararians Sports Club in the evening.

The defending champions had kicked off their Under-20 Barthés Trophy campaign with a disciplined 29-21 victory over a resilient Tunisia side on Saturday afternoon. Coach Simon Jawichre’s men put up quite the fight against the heavy Tunisians especially in the scrums to earn the much deserved win. This was Chipu’s second consecutive win over the North Africans having done the same last year.

Tunisia were defensively tactical and frustrated the Kenyans. Chipu also started slow and had tons of ball handling errors in the first half.

Namibia on the other hand in Match 1, revenged their last year loss to hosts Zimbabwe following a 41-22 drubbing in a big scoring duel. Zimbabwe’s Junior Sables were outmanned in virtually all departments, losing the physical battle upfront to Namibia’s heavier forwards pack, as well as failing to contain the opponents’ potency in the backs.

The Kalahari Desert Boys are now keen to seek a win in the crucial contest against Chipu in a bid to get a shot at getting to the finals. CEO of the Namibia Rugby Union (NRU) John Heynes was happy with his boys’ efforts’ in game one even as he saw potential for big progress in the competition.

““I think the boys did well; the scoreline showed us how dominant they were during their first match against Zimbabwe. This is also due to all the friendlies the team had played before the tournament,” he added.

Kenya’s coach is likely to maintain his stellar cast of match day 1 with aggression and forcing mistakes on the opponents being his goal. He has a well tuned squad featuring the likes of  Faran Juma,Dennis Ndayala and Roy mark Maruti who wewre instrumental in Game 1.Unlike last year’s commanding 56-17 win, Chipu were made to work much harder this time as Tunisia turned up with renewed resolve.