NAIROBI, March 6 – Kenya made it two out of two at the Rugby Sevens World Cup in Dubai with a 43-7 thrashing of Hong Kong on Friday afternoon.
Lavin Asego and Gibson Weru scored two tries each as Kenya recorded another comfortable win despite falling behind early in the game
Sidney Ashioya, Horace Owiti and Collins Injera also crossed the white line for Kenya but the team’s slow start was not lost on coach Benjamin Ayimba.
“Quite an unfortunate slip at the beginning which we should have sorted by now but atleast we came back and scored a number of tries. England had already set a precedent by beating them 42-7 yesterday so we needed to either match their score or better it to have cover regardless of the final match,” said Ayimba.
Rowan Varty opened the scoring touching down just a minute which was converted by Kenzo Panell to give Hong Kong a dream start.
But Kenya was soon ion the grove of things with Asego crossing the line. Weru then made it 10-7 for Kenya underneath the posts and he extended the lead to 17-7 at the break.
Asego notched his second try of the game staright from kick off before Ashioya scored his second try of the tournament after an brilliant piece of thinking by Injera who put him through with weighted kick.
Otieno was next to cross the line before Injera wrapped things up for an easy win.
Kenya takes on England in a crunch final group E match at 6:03pm.
“They are equally coming prepared as we are so we have to take our bar higher than we have. We cannot allow easy tries at the beginning of the game and of course raising the tempo of our game in the first half than we have done in the first two matches,” said Ayimba.
“With the players equally matched in different positions, concentration will play a big role meaning whoever holds better mentally will carry the day,” he added.
Skipper Humphrey Kayange also stressed out the importance of the England game.
“We said would take it a step at a time, we have won both our games but the last game is a must win game because we have to come out top of our pool to be sure of making the quarterfinals. We have to go to the match fully focused, and get a win whatever it takes we have to win our game,” said Kayange.
