NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul, 30 – Shujaa’s hopes of medaling at the 2022 Commonwealth Games came to a screeching halt on Saturday night after suffering a crashing 31-0 loss to New Zealand in the Cup quarters, exiting the contention for the podium at the exact same place their hopes ended at the last edition in Gold Coast, 2018.
The defending champions ran in five tries, three of which were converted, as they delivered a crushing defeat to the Kenyans, who now drop to contending for the ninth place.
Damian McGrath’s charges had a relatively good start to the match and held their own until Ngarohi McGarvey-Black dotted down the first try under the posts.
The All Blacks had turned over possession and skipper Sam Dickson doing well to suck in four players into a tackle before offloading to the speedy Ngarohi, who ended up converting his own effort for a 7-0 lead.
Kenya was punished once again on the turnover when New Zealand won back the ball. Shujaa had retained possession after the hooter and were hopeful of striking a try to go level at the break, but it was the All Blacks who would score, a quickly started penalty seeing Regan Ware go over the whitewash.
New Zealand led 12-0 at the break.
In the second half, it went from bad to worse for the Kenyan side as Ware completed his brace after the ball was swing to his left off some patient build up, his pace and mazy legs finding his a pocked of space to extend into the try box.
Scott Currry added one more with Ngarohi converting for a 24-0 lead, before Dylan Collier added another off the same channel, the conversion slicing the posts once again as the holders remained on course for yet another final.
