NAIROBI, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Rugby Africa President Abdelaziz Bougja says the continent has strong teams that can win the Sevens World Cup, which will be held this weekend in San Francisco, USA.
Africa will have four teams out of the 24 that will be battling it out in the competition. New Zealand's men and women are the defending champions and will be keen to do everything to retain their titles but Bougja says it will be African team that will wrest the crown at the end of the competition on Sunday.
Africa teams in the competition are Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe in the men's competition while only South Africa will be representing the continent in the women's cadre.
"They are strong teams in their own right and will fight it out and hopefully, one of the four men's teams will win the tournament. Kenya and South Africa have dominated the World Series circuit and hopefully that will be shown in the World Cup too," said Bougja on Monday.
South Africa has been seeded top owing to their good run in the World Series. Kenya will be number nine and will have to play in the preliminary round against Tonga before joining the eight top seeds. Winner of the match will meet Scotland to determine who make it to the quarterfinals.
This will be Kenya's fifth consecutive Rugby World Cup Sevens appearance and former head coach Benjamin Ayimba said the team has the capacity to make history and win the World Cup for the first time.
"They are a strong team better than any other before. With some luck, they will go all the way to the Main Cup finals," he said.
Ayimba played at Kenya's first ever World Cup in 2001 in Argentina and captained the team at their second show at the 2005 event in Hong Kong.
Ayimba later returned as head coach in 2009 and made history as he guided the team to finish third in Dubai in 2009.