Nairobi — The national under-20 rugby team head coach Curtis Olago believes there is need to improve the diet of rugby players at the high school level if Kenya is to physically measure up to other countries in the sport.
Olago said the World Under-20 Rugby Trophy has been an eye opener for him on the need to consider the dietary needs of players in preparations for major tournaments.
"Those in school need to have a good diet...you see what we are faced with. You're faced with 18-year-olds weighing 100 kilos (from opposite teams) and we need to condition ourselves much better", Olago said.
Olago was speaking in the aftermath of Chipu's 64-10 loss to Zimbabwe in the fifth-place playoff match of the World Under-20 Rugby Trophy match at Nyayo Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Drawing from the results of the match, Olago insisted on the importance of proper preparations for such tournaments.
"My observation is on the importance on attention to detail. We need to start early on the preparations...we need to prepare well for next year," the coach underscored.
He added: "There is so much attention we need to put to detail. There's so much detail around the game we need to put our emphasis in terms of line-out...attacking line-out and defensive line-out."
-Zimbabwe Coach-
Speaking at the same time, Zimbabwe head coach Shaun de Souza described Nyayo Stadium as a second home to the Southern Africans.
"It feels great (to win this game). We came to this tournament and playing at Nyayo Stadium felt like playing at home. The crowd that came into the Stadium today...we appreciate them so much. We know that most of them came to support Kenya but I also know half of them were for Zimbabwe," de Souza said.
De Souza added that a dinner outing with the boys had helped recalibrate their focus after a disappointing campaign in which they lost their Pool A matches to Scotland and Uruguay.
"I think we had a good strategy...We took the team out on Friday night for a bonding and just to build the camaraderie once again. We did that off field and then we did that on field," he said.
In the earlier matches of the day, United States beat Hong Kong 47-22 in the seventh place playoff.
In the bronze medal match, Scotland beat Samoa 83-10 to walk home as third place winners.
