Former KRU Boss Slams World Rugby for Killing Sevens Rugby After Shujaa’s Relegation

Former Kenya Rugby Union chairman Alexander ‘Sasha’ Mutai has weighed in on Kenya Sevens relegation to the second tier at the weekend.

Shujaa painfully saw their opportunity slip away at the third leg of the SVNS World Championship in Bordeaux, France on Sunday when they finished 11th while USA clinched eighth spot to deny them a chance to play top flight sevens rugby next season.

Kenya had come into the leg with 14 points and in eighth place, the final promotion slot, with ninth-placed Uruguay on six points while Germany and USA had five each.

However, they lost all their group stage matches to Fiji (31-12), South Africa (26-5) and Great Britain (14-5) before being beaten 7-5 by Germany in the ninth-place semi-final to drop to the 11th place playoff where they beat Uruguay 26-7.

That will see them miss out on a chance top play in the HSBC Sevens Division 1 and remain in the second tier Division 2 next season and Mutai feels it is down to their mistakes and also organisers World Rugby.

“It was very disappointing, we had it in our hands. The team is still good and should get back but we need to be clinical at that level,” Mutai told Pulse Sports.

“At that level, you cannot get to the try box and don’t score. But it comes down to preparations, I know the conditions we train in are not perfect and that is why at NOCK, we are working on a high-performance centre at KU [Kenyatta University]. After this, it will no longer have to be an excuse.

“However, we should have done the job in Bordeaux, we cannot lose to Germany.”

The former KRU boss has, however, feels World Rugby is also to blame for making things tough for Kenya and all the other teams, following their decision to reduce the number of core teams from 12 to eight last year.

Mutai believes the move has not yielded the desired results and is instead killing sevens rugby.

“World Rugby made a mistake by reducing the number of core teams. Instead of growing the game, they made it smaller. Look at football with 48 teams at the World Cup,” he added.

“Football is expanding while rugby is contracting. In the end, they have killed the sport. The interest has gone down because viewership has declined. Diehards are retreating out of events.

“If they made losses last season, they will make more this year because the stadiums are empty, the numbers are going down and as it appears, sevens rugby could die,” Mutai further stated.

Shujaa were among the teams affected when World Rugby cut down the number of core teams at a time when they were preparing for a promotion playoff but came close to a return this year before blowing away their big advantage.