Kenya to host HSBC Sevens Two tournament next year, says KRU chairperson Okach

Kenya will host a tournament in the HSBC Sevens Division Two competition next year, chairperson Harriet Okach has announced. The country will be one of three host cities for the leg of the second-tier competition.

While the exact dates and venues for the two legs are not yet known, this selection gives Kenya an opportunity to host the event for the second year running, following the tournament hosted in February in front of a sold out Nyayo Stadium.

Okach stated that the National Sevens Series as well as the Safari Sevens will play pivotal roles in the build-up to the tournament next year.

"We appreciate you for walking the journey with us, knowing that we are going to do the six legs, and then we go into Safari 7s. We hope you will stay with us, not just as Shujaa partners but as Kenya Rugby Union partners. And when we go into the new season for the league and next year, when we will be hosting the HSBC SVNS leg in Nairobi again,” Okach said.

“I am saying this so that you prepare your wallets. You can go back and prepare yourselves now that we are getting into the new financial year. But this is just to thank you and the clubs for coming again to host the National 7s Circuit. I know it is not easy because most of our clubs are community clubs.”

Okach explained that they learnt lessons from last year's event and expressed confidence that they will be better. “We learnt a lot from the event in February from marketing to logistics, to the venue team participation corporate support and government support so we will be hoping next it will be better and bigger,” she said.

The hosting announcement comes after the Kenya sevens team recently missed out on an opportunity to play in Division One. The team fell short in the final leg of the World Championship in Bordeaux, France, where they finished 11th overall and missed out on the final place to the United States.

The United States beat Fiji 17-14 in their classification match for fifth, earning 12 points to finish with 17 points overall and eighth overall. Meanwhile, Shujaa had a disastrous outing, earning two points to finish on 16 points and ninth overall to miss out on qualification.