NAIROBI, Kenya, February 9- Kenya have all to play for in their last Group B fixture at the USA Sevens after opening their campaign with a loss and a win in their two matches.
Mike Friday’s Wellington Sevens Main Cup finalists sunk 12-19 to Canada before recovering to edge out Uruguay 12-7 to set up a must win encounter against South Africa who took charge of the group with two wins.
The Springboks added a 17-5 victory against Canada to an impressive 45-0 victory against the only non-core side competing in Las Vegas, Uruguay.
Canada defeated Kenya early on, which meant both of the Wellington Sevens finalists lost their opening matches with England going down in both their Group A games.
Sean Duke crossed for his 22nd try of the Series with Nanyak Dala and Jeffery Hassler scoring Canada’s other tries with Oscar Ouma and Collins Injera going over for Kenya.
The team recovered from their opening defeat, riding their luck to come from 7-5 down and inflict a second defeat on Uruguay, Biko Adema benefiting from smart work by Oscar Ayodi to seal victory.
Elsewhere, Fiji, who will be without both their suspended captain Setefano Cakau and Manueli Lagai for the remainder of the tournament, won both of their opening matches on day one of the USA Sevens at the Sam Boyd Stadium.
They narrowly held on to a 14-12 victory against Scotland, with Russell Weir narrowly missing a last-minute penalty drop goal.
England, last week’s champions, lost both of their opening matches, against Fiji 26-17 with two tries from Samisoni Viriviri and Portugal, 21-5.
Scotland beat Portugal in their first match, with Mark Robertson and Michael Fedo scoring the tries and Colin Gregor’s touchline conversion proving decisive.
All three teams, however, are still in with a chance of reaching the Cup competition depending on results on day two.
