NAIROBI, Kenya, July 12 – The national men’s under 20 rugby team narrowly lost 30-17 to the United States in their third match of the World Rugby Under 20 Trophy at the Hive Stadium in Scotland on Friday evening.
The Americans took the lead in the 16th minute through Max Threlkeld despite the best efforts of Patrick Wainaina to prevent him from going over the white chalk.
Tito Edjua extended their lead in the 35th minute through a penalty goal before James Olela responded three minutes later with a penalty of his own.
The Americans came back from the dressing room guns blazing, racing into a 30-3 lead within 21 minutes.
Edjua scored his second penalty two minutes after the restart before Luke Schaefer went over the try line to extend their lead to 18-3 — Edjua converting successfully between the posts.
Keelan Farrell scored the third try of the match in the 53rd minute before Edjua converted as Chipu seemed all at sea.
Things seemed to go from bad to worse for coach Simon Jawichre’s side as Rand Santos put the ball over the white chalk for their fourth try of the game.
However, Chipu awakened from their slumber — keen to avoid a repeat of their 51-3 whipping by the Netherlands in their last encounter on Sunday.
Samuel Otete notched their first try of the game in the 70th minute before Nakuru RFC’s Phillip Okeyo stepped up for a successful conversion.
Chipu were smelling a comeback and piled pressure in the Americans 22, which paid off as Daniel Bett went over the line for the second try.
Okeyo once again stepped up for the conversion to reduce the deficit to 30-17.
With the loss, Chipu remain languishing at the bottom of Pool B having lost all their matches against Uruguay, the Netherlands and the U.S.
They have one more chance to close their campaign on a high when they play Hong Kong China in the 7th place playoff on Wednesday at the same venue.
The Asians finished bottom of Pool A after losing all their matches, including a 39-19 defeat to Samoa in their ultimate fixture.
