GABORONE, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Botswana is gearing up for the 2018 Men Rugby Africa Sevens Championship slated for October in Tunisia.

The African rugby continental body released pools for the annual tournament this week and Botswana is in Pool A against top ranked African side Kenya and Morocco.

Botswana will play Kenya in the opening match of the tournament in the town of Monastir on Oct. 13.

According to a media release from the Botswana Rugby Union (BRU) on Friday, the team began their preparations in August and has already played in a couple of friendly tournaments regionally.

They left for neighbouring South Africa on Friday to play in an invitations sevens tournament to conclude their preparations before the final squad of 12 players is announced next week.

Coach Andrew Paxinos has called at least 25 players to a training camp over the past month to create a large pool to select his final squad from.

With most players he inherited from the previous team aging, he has called in a few fresh faces to the squad in an effort to give them exposure at international level.

The annual Men Sevens tournament brings together the top 12 ranked African countries to battle for supremacy with other incentives such as getting invitations to the HSBC World Sevens circuit also in the line.

With Kenya already playing in the circuit, two other teams that finish the tournament ranking top get invitations to the Dubai and Cape Town legs of the Word circuit.

Botswana did not do well in the previous edition of the tournament played in Uganda in 2017 where they finished 11th and they will need to work hard to redeem their pride and improve their position in the continental rankings. Enditem