Kenya Sevens to battle France in Challenge cup semis

Kenya Sevens will play France on Sunday at 11.08pm in the Challenge Cup semi-finals of the Las Vegas Sevens at the Sam Boyd Stadium.

Shujaa, reached the last four after they beat Chile 21-19 in the Challenge quarter-finals. Kenya once again dropped to the Challenge trophy after they finished third in Pool C behind winners Argentina, who nicked top spot after they edged our New Zealand 12-10 in their final pool match.

Kenya beat familiar opponents Russia 12-10 but it was not enough to take them to the Cup quarters. They went into the match having failed to win their opening two matches, losing 24-7 to All Blacks before settling for a 141-4 draw with Argentina at the end of the first day of action on Saturday.

Russia’s early pressure paid off as they went ahead courtesy of an unconverted try by Eme Patris Peki. The Europeans were however soon afterwards reduced to six men after winger Dmitry Sukhinwas was sin binned.

Kenya took full advantage as Willy Ambaka made them pay with his 83rd Sevens Series try. Sammy Oliech missed the conversion to tie the game at 5-5 going to the break.

Three minutes into the second half, Captain Andrew Amonde bullied his way over between the posts and Oliech dully converted for Shujaa to lead 12-5. Eduard Filatov hit the accelerator and got a beautiful pass away to Alexey Kapalin who put Russia back to within two points of their opponents.

Kenya however managed to hang on for their first win in Las Vegas. Against Chile, Kenya were cruising after tries from Amonde, Billy Odhaimbo and Dan Sikuta helped them take a 21-0 lead at the drinks.

In the second half, Chile scored three tries. Julio Blanc scored a try after only 37 seconds and Marcelo Torrealba converted. Felipe Brangier was next over in the fourth minute of this half. Torrealba missed the conversion.

He scored a try in the sixth minute and converted for the final score.