NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 27 – The national sevens team displayed a dismal performance in the season opening 2021/22 HSBC World Rugby Series after finishing 8th.
Shujaa, who only won one game out of the six they played collected 10 points and will be looking for the next tournament in Dubai to bounce back.
Earlier on, the Innocent Simiyu charges dropped to the 7th place final after being eliminated by Great Britain 33-7.
Australia won 35-21 to clinch the 5th Place.
Against Great Britain, it was not a good display from the Kenyan side that was dominated despite giving the Britons a run for their money in the tightly contested energy sapping first half that ended 7-5 infavour of Great Britain.
The second half belonged to Great Britain who scored three quick tries to seal the game.
Kenya were relegated to the 5th place final semi after losing 19-5 to double Olympic champions Fiji in the Cup quarter-final.
Kenya started off well in the first half, dominating the first four minutes, with it’s physicality to pin down a relatively new Fiji side to their area.
That forced the Fijians who had 11 debutants to make schoolboy errors which Shujaa maximized to draw the first blood thanks to Herman Humwa who went over after being awarded a penalty from close range, but the conversion was missed to take a 5-0 lead.
However, a minute later Fiji struck back after Kenya was penalized, seeing the Fijians take a fast lineout and speed off to the try-line with a converted try and take a two-point lead.
They extend their lead after taking advantage of Kenya’s mistakes when Jeff Oluoch who had an opportunity to score from close range blew up the chance when he miscued his kick to see Fiji break through the open field, side stepping Kenyan defenders to dot down for the converted try, taking a 14-5 lead at half time.
Coming back for the last half, the Innocent Simiyu charges could not match the Fijians who got their groove back and they scored the only try in the second stanza from a line-out after a penalty was awarded at the breakdown to take 14 points lead and hold on to win the match and progress to the semi finals for the first time since 2018 and hey will face Mike Friday’s USA.
