Kenya’s men rugby team, Shujaa and Uruguay are returning to the core squad to join Argentina, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, France, Fiji, South Africa, Great Britain, the United States, and Spain, the series defenders.

Shujaa beat Germany 33-15 in the 2024 Challenger Series finals in Madrid to reclaim their core in the World Seven Series.

Pools have been drawn for the first event in the 2025 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series season, the Dubai Sevens Series scheduled for November 30th-December 1st.

Pools at the Dubai Sevens

POOL A: France, South Africa, Australia, Kenya

Pool B: Argentina, Ireland, Great Britain, Uruguay

POOL C: Fiji, New Zealand, USA, Spain

South Africa finished sixth in the previous season, France is the current series champion, and Australia, whom Kenya faced at the Olympics in Paris earlier this year, defeated Shujaa 21-7. 

The series then goes on to Los Angeles from May 3–4, 2025, Vancouver from February 21–23, Hong Kong from March 28–30, Cape Town from December 7–8, and Perth from January 24–26.

Due to pending contract concerns, the Kenya Rugby Union has not yet cleared the senior players for the training camp.

Notable players who are absent include Vincent Onyala, Chrisant Ojwang, George Ooro, Tony Omondi, and Kevin Wekesa. The majority of the players have already started training at the camp.

Former Shujaa coach Mike Friday, in his recent visit to Kenya during the 2024 Safari Sevens last month, commended Shujaa’s coaching staff and shed some insight on the team ahead of the world series. Friday’s team, Shogun (formerly Samurai), lost to Shujaa at the Safari Sevens in Machakos.

“If Shujaa wants to do well in the World Series, they need to realize and recognize they can’t get favours in the World Series, their discipline, their technical work in the breakdown, or the scram time.

“They need to make sure the players are in the right places so they don’t get freekicks, which eventually means losing games in the World Series,” said the coach.