It’s never too late to make amends – says Lionesses skipper Olando

TOKYO, Japan, Jul 29 – Kenya Lioness Captain Philadelphia Olando reckons it’s never too late to make amends despite a false start at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games here in Japan.

“It’s not over until it’s over. We are still going all out. We have seen teams losing then picking themselves up even with the slimmest of chances. I still believe in the girls that we can still recover lost ground and do our best tomorrow,” Olando, who is one of the players who were at the Rio Olympics said.

The Kenyan ladies went down to a 7-29 loss to champions New Zealand and 12-35 to Russia, playing under the banner of the Russia Olympic Committee since they are still banned by the IOC over doping.

Kenya will play their last Pool A match against United Kingdom on Friday in a must win match for them to mathematically have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

“We have to find solutions to the defensive mistakes that turned decisively in Russia’s favour in our second match. This is not quite the result we expected. As I had said earlier, losing to the top team in the world, we really tried our best and gave it our all,” the captain said.

As a team we wanted to give the best result ever. Sadly, things did not work our way. So, we will have to pick up tomorrow. As you well know, we have not been training together so getting back and bonding together was quite a challenge for us,” she added referring to the other eight members of the team who were quarantined for almost two weeks in Japan after one of the passengers in the flight they were in from Nairobi tested positive for COVID-19.

Olando nevertheless asserts that the quarantine quagmire shouldn’t be the point of reference when the team goes down.

“We really have to work on our weaknesses and come tomorrow we will give a good show. Our defense didn’t work quite well. First half they were 14 against 12. I believe we slagged quite a bit on the defence and they used that against us. I believe we will discuss that and come tomorrow; we will make things better.”

Other players that were with Olando at the Rio Olympics are Sheila Chajira and Janet ‘Shebesh’ Okello.

The Lioness team lost all their pool matches at the Rio Olympics to Spain, New Zealand and France.

The side went down 52-0 to New Zealand before losing 40-7 to France in the Brazillian capital five years ago. Lioness team players were later humbled 19-10 by Spain in a match that they were supposed to win by a great margin so as to stand a chance of advancing past the group stage.

-Oloo on defensive lapses-

However, come 2021, the team has improved technically as head coach Felix Oloo explains.

Oloo has gone into systematic details as to why his side conceded five tries and gave themselves a mountain to climb in Pool.

Oloo reckons that the players did not display the correct levels of defensive knack when attempting to repel the Russians in their 12-35 defeat.

The Russians ran in five converted tries against Kenya’s two as the former racked up their first win at the Summer Games.

“I can’t say it’s that bad considering what the girls have gone through and also to try to blend them into a formidable side thereafter. What’s more, 14 days in quarantine is not a joke,” Oloo stated.

“Match-wise, our defence didn’t click and kind of we got lost after three to four phases. I will have to work on the defence facet well in time. We only have a few hours though before facing Great Britain.”

“We will surely give it our all. I know GB is a good side, but again we will have to fight it out to remain in contention. Regardless of our false start in the first two matches, I am still proud of them given what they have gone through.”

–Alex Isaboke is reporting from Tokyo, Japan-