Vanquished Kenya 7s drop to Challenge Trophy in Wellington

Kenya Sevens were awful in all facet of play as they fell to England 31-12 to drop to the Challenge Trophy competition at Wellington Sevens on Saturday.

Innocent “Namcos” Simiyu’s charges, who had earlier lost to Argentina 17-12 before beating Papua New Guinea 47-5, needed to dispatch England to advance to the medal bracket event.

Kenya, who had lost nine and drawn once of their last 10 meetings with England, easily lost the kick offs and possession besides failing in their defence.

England worked out wide to put through their speedster Dan Norton who was too much for the disjointed Kenyan defence. Dan Bibby would chase his own chip before latching on the ball to land for England's second try.

Kenya would strike but William Ambaka passed the ball straight to the England captain Tom Mitchell, who made no mistake to score for a 17-0 lead.

However, Kenya regained some confidence and put up some lovely display that saw Collins Injera, who is playing in his first tournament this season having missed Dubai and Cape Town legs, weaved through to lay Ambaka for the try that Samuel Oliech converted to bring Kenya back into the game 7-17 at half time.

Kenya couldn’t maintain possession even with minimal pressure and failed to tackle. England cashed on these weaknesses as Alex Davies and Lindsay Hague scored tries for the Britons to stretch their lead to 31-7.

Injera, the World Sevens Series leading all-time top try scorer, stretched his tally to 236 when he touched down but it was too late for the Kenyans as they lost 31-12.

Kenya went into Wellington placed 10th the World Series with a total of 17 points. Kenya had reached the Challenge Trophy semi-finals in the opening leg of the Series in Dubai before finishing sixth at Cape Town Sevens in December.