{"id":425867,"date":"2026-01-20T16:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425867\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T16:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T16:54:12","slug":"kenyas-captains-ready-for-svns-2-to-start-on-home-soil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425867\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya’s captains ready for SVNS 2 to start on home soil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kenya<\/a> sevens captains Samuel Asati<\/a> and Sheila Chajira are hotly anticipating playing the first HSBC SVNS<\/a> 2 event of the season in front of a home crowd.<\/p>\n

Nairobi will be the first leg of the second division competition, which also has events in Montevideo and Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n

Between 14-15 February all 12 teams will be on the lookout for a strong start, with a top four finish at the end of March securing a place at the HSBC SVNS World Championship events in Hong Kong, Valladolid and Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s women will compete with China, Spain, Brazil, Argentina<\/a> and South Africa, while the men\u2019s side are joined by the USA, Germany, Uruguay, Canada<\/a> and Belgium.<\/p>\n

Last season Kenya\u2019s men were relegated from core team status. This was despite a runners-up finish in Singapore, where the Shujaa stunned the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about this tournament is that it\u2019s round-robin and we\u2019ve played against almost all these teams,\u201d Samuel Asati told Citizen Digital<\/a>. \u201cIf we focus on ourselves, our structure and play our cards right, we shall have it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opening leg will set the pace for our journey back to the SVNS Series. Winning here would be a big plus and put us in a good position going into the other legs.<\/p>\n

\u201cHosting a championship like this is a plus for the country. It shows Kenya is growing rugby-wise, that we have talent, and that sports should be taken seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season Kenya\u2019s women won the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series at the end of several dominant performances.<\/p>\n

Back-to-back wins in Cape Town, the side finished third in Krakow to top the table. They secured their spot at HSBC SVNS 2 in 2026 with a strong performance in Los Angeles at the HSBC World Championship playoffs event.<\/p>\n

Both teams have been preparing for this campaign with training camps. Kenya\u2019s men went to South Africa<\/a> to take on the Blitzboks, while the women\u2019s side went to Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been training for a long time, and right now we\u2019re sharpening our game,\u201d Chajira said. \u201cThe camp in Spain<\/a> will expose us to the same quality of teams we\u2019ll face here in Kenya.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we are hosting or not, the pressure is always there. Our goal is to qualify for the SVNS Series, and that means beating every team we meet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kenya sevens captains Samuel Asati and Sheila Chajira are hotly anticipating playing the first HSBC SVNS 2 event…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-425867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}