Woeful Kenya finish 14th in Sydney

What you need to know:

  • Despite having some of its finest players, Kenya Sevens posted their worse show this season, losing to 10-5 to Canada to collect two points from Sydney Sevens on Sunday.
  • Kenya, who had earlier crushed 22-0 to Russia in the Challenge Trophy quarterfinals, recovered to beat Scotland 19-7 before losing to the Canadians in the play-off to finish 14th in the fourth leg of the World Series.
  • The results saw Kenya drop one place to 11th with 27 points as South Africa claimed their third World Sevens Series victory with a sweet 29-14 revenge against England in the cracking final.

Despite having some of its finest players, Kenya Sevens posted their worse show this season, losing 10-5 to Canada to collect two points from Sydney Sevens on Sunday.

Kenya, who had earlier crushed 22-0 to Russia in the Challenge Trophy quarterfinals, recovered to beat Scotland 19-7 before losing to the Canadians in the play-off to finish 14th in the fourth leg of the World Series.

The results saw Kenya drop one place to 11th with 27 points as South Africa claimed their third World Sevens Series victory with a sweet 29-14 revenge against England in the cracking final.

England had in the pool stage beaten South Africa 21-15 before the Blitzbokke turned on style to win in what was also a revenge of the Cape Town Sevens final defeat where the Britons won 19-17.

South Africa beat Fiji twice in Dubai Sevens and Wellington Sevens finals 26-14 and 26-5 respectively.

Kenya Sevens lost to Argentina in Challenge Trophy semi-finals in Dubai 19-21, finished sixth at Cape Town Sevens, their best show after losing to Fiji 21-33 before beating Australia 19-17 to lift Challenge Trophy in Wellington.

The honeymoon seems over for Kenya Sevens coach Innocent “Namcos” Simiyu with the heat turning on from rugby fans who now want results and consistency.

Simiyu said he will critically make an overview on the root cause of his team’s massive errors and loss of concentration that saw them concede their leads to lose to England and South Africa at the pool stage.

“We played better than them though our error rate was high, lost concentration in the key moments,” said Simiyu. “England scored two tries in 30seconds while South Africa touched down two tries in a minute,” noted Simiyu.

Willy Ambaka sliced through at the middle to score and draw level 5-5 before a magnificent try-saving tackle by Adam Zaruba to deny Collins Injera a try and the lead at halftime.

Justin Douglas ran in his fifth try at Sydney Sevens as Canada led Kenya 10-5. Ambaka’s efforts to hand Kenya the victory proved futile with good defending from Luke McCloskey on the line as the Canadians claimed 13th place.

Scott Wight converted his own try to give Scotland a 7-0 lead but the powerful Ambaka dropped his shoulder to charge to score as Eden Agero converted to level 7-7 at the break.

Kenya forced a turnover in their own 22metres before working across the pitch from left to right and substitute Nelson Oyoo would finish off the move with a try. Daniel Sikuta’s try stretched Kenya sevens beyond reach.

There will be no reprieve for wounded Kenya as they face Sydney bronze medal winners New Zealand, Argentina and Russia in Pool C in the fifth leg in Las Vegas USA due March 3–5  at Sam Boyd Stadium.