NAIROBI, March 13 – Kenya produced a dismal performance to collect one point at the inaugural Vancouver 7s after going down 24-7 to promoted side Russia in the Shield semi-finals in Canada on Sunday.
Shujaa, who failed to win a match in the final day after falling 21-24 to France in the Bowl quarter-finals, stagnated eighth of 52 points ahead of the seventh round of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Hong Kong leg scheduled for April 8-10.
However, it was a good outing for vice captain Collins Injera, who took his overall series tally to 222 tries, eight short of record holder and World Rugby sevens columnist, Santiago Gomez Cora of Argentina.
In the Shield final, Kenya failed to recover from yet another last-gasp 21-24 loss they suffered against France in the Bowl semi-finals as a much-improved Russia took advantage to enjoy an unexpected first-half dominance.
Tries from German Davydov, Eduard Filatov and Vladislav Sozonov made it 19-0 before Oscar Ouma grabbed a lifeline for Kenya on the stroke of half-time.
Kenya was unable to turnaround the second-half after Yury Gostyuzhev increases Russia’s advantage to 24-7 with their fourth try of the match.
The Kenyans had no answer to Russia, who converted their opportunities to book a place in the Shield final against either Portugal, whom they beat 17-10 to lift the Shield.
Shujaa was relegated to the Shield competition by France in a contest where Willy Ambaka, Injera and Sammy Oliech touched down.