Chipu had several chances to break away and score more tries to win them the game, but they kept on squandering possession in unnecessary situations, failing to handle the ball well.
The national rugby Under 20 head coach Curtis Olago has blasted his side’s inability to retain possession as they fell short 34-25 to Samoa in their opening Pool B World u20 trophy match played at the Nyayo National Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Chipu started brightly, but their inability to keep hold of the ball allowed Samoa to bounce back and even though they scored two late tries to reduce the deficit, it was not enough to give them a chance of beating the Samoans. Olago has criticized his boys for failing to “go according to plan”.
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Kenya scored two quick tries before the end of the match, but they were not enough to prevent Samoa from narrowly edging them.
“We lost the game in the first ten minutes of the first half. We did not play according to plan. We went out of script and allowed Samoa to dominate the ball.
“We must learn to use the ball more efficiently. We wanted to control the pace of the game by having the ball but we did not have it most of the time. Our plan was to have the ball, but we kept on losing the ball which was not good enough,” Olago said.
Chipu had several chances to break away and score tries of their own, but they kept on losing and squandering possession in unnecessary situations, failing to handle the ball well.
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They were also making questionable decision making at times, and their kicking was not as sleek as Samoa’s.
Captain Michael Wamalwa chose to pick the optimism card.
“The boys tried their all. We have done what we can, played our hearts out but unfortunately, the result did not go how we wanted. We have to go back to the drawing board and see what will happen,” he added.
Chipu will have their work cut out when they face a technically proficient Spain side that are strong height-wise and technically proficient on Thursday at the same venue.
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