NAIROBI, March 12 – Impala RFC utility back Sammy Oliech opened his World Sevens Series account as Kenya demolished Portugal 43-5 at the inaugural Vancouver tournament in the sixth round played at the BC Place Stadium on Saturday.
Shujaa showed a great display to dominate the encounter as they completed 29 passes against Portugal’s 6, to put one foot in the Main Cup quarter-finals.
The Benjamin Ayimba side need to down Samoa in their second game at 1:12am local time to advance to the quarters with a game to spare.
Reigning World Series champions Fiji outclassed Samoa 38-5 in the other Pool A match with their next fixture coming against Portugal.
Vice captain Collins Injera opened the scoring from Willy Ambaka’s set up to take his overall series tally to 219, one short of Ben Gollings, who is second in the all-time list and11 behind record holder and World Rugby sevens columnist, Santiago Gomez Cora of Argentina.
Kenya were on the score board two minutes later when Ambaka did well to pick Biko Adema’s restart before off loading to Oscar Ayodi, who did well to sprint and touch down at the left corner for the converted try.
Skipper Andrew Amonde led from the front to extend Kenya’s lead, when he collected Injera’s lay-off to ground his 30th career try.
It was a one way traffic as Oscar Ouma picked the ball from the ruck to touch the white wash as Adema converted to give Shujaa a 26-0 half-time lead.
Ayimba charges added three tries on resumption with Ouma staring when he powerfully tackled an opponent to find Amonde, who inturn fed Adema to finish off in style.
Shujaa suffered an injury blow when Dennis Ombachi limped off to be replaced by veteran Humphrey Kayange.
Portugal pulled one back but Oliech and Leonard Mugaisi grounded each to seal Kenya’s victory that saw them beat Portuguese thrice this season.