Kenya 7s winger Willy Ambaka in action against Portugal.PHOTO/IRB
NAIROBI, Kenya, May 14 – Willy Amaka grounded twice as Kenya beat Russia 22-7 at the penultimate round of the HSBC Sevens World Series in Paris to storm the Main Cup quarter-final with a match to spare.
After seeing off Portugal 29-14 in the opening match of Group A, the Singapore Sevens champions had no mercy for Russia with Shujaa scoring four tries in a match where Billy Odhiambo started from the bench.
Kenya were dominant in the first half where they created many chances but only managed to get two tries through Sammy Oliech and Willy Ambaka to head to the breather leading 12-0.
Humphrey Kayanage was denied a try when Vladislav Lazarenko did well to force the veteran into touch before Oliech collected a good offload from Collins Injera to get the first.
Ambaka struck on the stroke of half-time after Kenya stopped Denis Simplikevich to punish the Russians from the counter attack.
Shujaa sealed a routine victory with second-half tries from Ambaka and Kayange.
Ambaka was first to go over after showing great strength to ride one tackle and power through to the line for his second try.
Kenya suffered a blow when Ambaka went down injured, to see a tremendous offload from Mikhail Babaev put German Davydov away for Russia’s only try.
Shujaa had the last word as veteran Kayange used every inch of his big frame to stretch out for the line.
Kenya will now face power house New Zealand at 3:03pm local time (+3GMT) in their last preliminary match where they need a win to top the Pool A and avoid meeting hosts France in the quarters.
