SHUJAA BANKING ON HISTORY: Injera and Odhiambo shine as 7s team book date with hosts New Zealand in quarter-finals

RUGBYU-SEVENS-ENG-KEN Dan Norton (L) of England tackles Billy Odhiambo of Kenya during their rugby match of the Dubai leg of IRB's Sevens World Series on December 4, 2015. AFP PHOTO / MARWAN NAAMANI

Kenya Sevens Rugby team was hoping history would repeat itself as they took on hosts New Zealand in the first Main Cup quarter-finals of the Wellington Sevens at 3:02am today.

Shujaa beat the reigning tournament’s champions 19-14 in the dramatic 2013 semi-final thanks to Oscar Ouma’s sudden-death extra-time try but unfortunately lost to England in the final.

Kenya set up another epic knock out encounter with All Blacks (who topped Group A) in less than two years after finishing second in Group D behind Australia.

Shujaa thrashed Canada and Portugal 37-7 and 26-5 before falling to the Wallabies 17-12 in their last match.

“I am happy we are in the quarter-finals despite not topping the pool. We are now focusing on the New Zealand game,” Kenya coach Benjamin Ayimba said.

“We are still sharpening our team but we will play as we know best. It will not be an easy match but we are going for a win.”

Collins Injera and Billy ‘The Kid’ Odhiambo were the heroes of the Kenyan team. The scored seven tries between them on Day One of the tournament.

The impressive display saw Injera take his tries tally to 212.

He is now eight tries behind England legend Ben Gollings and 18 behind Argentina’s current head coach Santiago Gomez Cora.

However, it was the unstoppable Greg Jeloudev who scored a try in each half to extend Australia’s dominance against Kenya, beating them 17-12 in a thrilling final Group match.

Australia took the lead when Jeloudev intercepted Andrew Amonde’s pass and raced through the middle to score his first try of the match.

However, Oscar Ayodi did well to shrug off his markers, passed the ball to Odhiambo, who outpaced his marker to score his fourth try of the tournament.

Biko Adema, who was making his 50th appearance in the tournament failed to convert making the score line 7-5.

A few moments later, Odhiambo returned the favour setting up Ayodi for Kenya to take a comfortable 12-7 halftime lead.

In their opening match, Odhiambo scored two tries with Injera, Biko and experienced Humphrey Kayange scoring a try each to propel Shujaa to a convincing 37-7 victory. Injera and Odhiambo also got their names on the score sheet as Kenya stunned Portugal 26-5. Nelson Ayoo scored the other try.