Collins Injera (born 18 October 1986) is a Kenyan

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

player. He holds the second place for number of tries scored on the World Rugby Sevens Series with 271. He is known for his achievements with Kenyan national rugby sevens team.

Career

Injera started playing rugby while at Vihiga High School in

Vihiga Vihiga is a town in Kenya located on the eastern side of the Kakamega Forest. Geography The town is along the road between Kisumu and Kakamega, and only five kilometres north of the equator. Vihiga bears the same name as its county, Vihiga Coun ...

. After graduation in 2005 he joined military team Ulinzi RFC playing in the

Kenya Cup The Kenya Cup is the top tier club rugby union competition in Kenya organized by the Kenya Rugby Union. For the 2019-2020 season, twelve teams are divided into two pools of six, Each team plays home and away against each team in its pool and on ...

league. The team was later disbanded, and he moved to

Mwamba RFC Mwamba Rugby Football Club, (Known as Stanbic Mwamba RFC for sponsorship purposes), is a Kenyan rugby union club based in Nairobi. The club was founded in 1977 with the aim of promoting rugby union among indigenous Kenyans at a time when the spor ...

, a Nairobi-based team where he plays as a

wing A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expres ...

.Daily Nation, Buzz Magazine, 16 January 2009
Top of the top
/ref> Now a strong player for the Kenyan Sevens squad, Injera debuted with the team at the 2006 Dubai SevensDaily Nation, 15 January 2009

/ref> and played in the

2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2009 Rugby Sevens World Cup was the fifth edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as the host venue for the tournament ahead of bids from four other countries. The f ...

, where Kenya reached the semifinals. He became the top try scorer for

2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series The 2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series was the tenth of an annual IRB Sevens World Series of rugby union sevens tournaments for full national sides run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000. South Africa clinched the 2008–09 Wor ...

season with 42 tries. He also scored 210 points and finished second behind

Ben Gollings Ben Gollings (born 13 May 1980) is an English former rugby union player who currently works as a rugby coach for Fiji sevens team. Gollings is best known for his time with the England national rugby sevens team. He is the career leader in poi ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in the individual points table. Injera has also played for the

Kenya national rugby union team The Kenya national rugby union team is also known as the ''Simbas'' (''simba'' is Swahili for 'lion'). Kenya competes in the Africa Cup and is ranked thirty-third in the World Rugby Rankings as of August 2022. Kenya is yet to qualify for the Ru ...

(15s) at his usual position left wing (number 11), playing at the 2011 World Cup Qualifiers. In February 2013, Injera was dropped from the Kenya national sevens team and his contract was cancelled by the head coach

Mike Friday Michael John "Mike" Friday (born April 25, 1972) has been the head coach of the United States national rugby sevens team since summer 2014. Friday was appointed head coach after the U.S. coach for the 2013–14 season, Matt Hawkins, was asked to ...

. This was because of a conflict between Injera's club

and the Kenya national sevens team. This conflict led to Injera missing training sessions with the Kenya national sevens team and therefore breaching his contract. As a consequence of this breach, Injera's contract was cancelled. In 2022, He was recalled into the Kenyan squad for the

Rugby World Cup Sevens Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWCS) is the quadrennial world championship of rugby sevens, a variant of rugby union. Organised by World Rugby, it currently consists of men's and women's tournaments, and is the highest level of competition in the sport ...

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

Awards

Injera was nominated for the 2008–09

IRB Sevens Player of the Year The World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year is awarded by World Rugby each year. It was first awarded in 2004. The award is based in large part on the player’s performance over the course of the World Rugby Sevens Series, along with other Sevens to ...

award, which was eventually won by

Ollie Phillips (rugby union) Ollie Phillips (born in Brighton) is a former English professional rugby union player. Phillips combined successful careers in both the 15-a-side game and also the Olympic version of the game, Rugby Sevens. Phillips captained England Sevens a ...

Injera won the Kenyan Sportsman of the Year award in 2009. In 2010, Injera was awarded the presidential Order of Golden Warriors (OGW) alongside his brother

Humphrey Kayange Humphrey Kayange (born 20 July 1982) is a Kenyan former rugby union player and organic chemist. Kayange is known within the rugby sevens community, as he has produced some of the best performances for the Kenya national sevens side. He is a f ...

for their performance in the 2008–09 IRB Sevens World Series. Collins Injera was named Player of the final in

2016 Singapore Sevens The 2016 Singapore Sevens was the eighth tournament of the 2015–16 World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was played on 16–17 April 2016 at National Stadium in Singapore. It was the fourth time the Singapore Sevens The Singapore Seve ...

, after helped

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

to win their first tournament in

World Sevens Series The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...

Personal life

Injera's older brother

is a former captain of the Kenyan sevens squad. Their younger brother Michael Agevi has also played rugby for the Sevens team in the past. Injera has a degree in

mass communication Mass communication is the process of imparting and exchanging information through mass media to large segments of the population. It is usually understood for relating to various forms of media, as its technologies are used for the dissemination o ...

from Kenya College for Communication Technology (KCCT). He is an alumnus of

Daystar University Daystar is a Christian liberal arts university in Nairobi. Daystar's original campus is close to Nairobi city centre, but there was no room to expand at that location. Therefore, in 1992 a new campus was built at Athi River, some 40 km to ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Injera, Collins Kenyan rugby union players Rugby union wings 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Nairobi Male rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby sevens players of Kenya Kenya international rugby sevens players Daystar University alumni Rugby sevens players at the 2020 Summer Olympics