Kenya lose in semis in Dubai

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By BS Mulavi

The Kenya Sevens team again captured the breath of the rugby world with a resounding victory over the defending champions Fiji to storm into the semis of the sevens World Cup where they lost to a resilient Argentina.

The win by Kenya guaranteed new champions would be crowned in the Melrose Cup of the shorter version of the game. Fiji were caught off guard by a well-drilled Kenyan outfit that seemed adamant in their endeavour for their very first World Cup trophy.

From the onset, the Kenyans had the steering wheel firm in their grip with an early try by Quins forward Allan Onyango ruled out following a forward pass from captain Humphrey Kayange. The warning bells had been sounded early and what followed was a Lavin Asego try after the crafty fly-half picked up on a loose ball from a botched scrum down by the unsettled Fiji side.

Young stalwart Collins Injera could have doubled the lead, but a lapse of concentration forced a knock-on from the winger when the ball slid off his grip just after he had had the better of the opposing Fijian winger.

The centre post try by Asego took the game to half-time with Kenya firm favourites to advance to the semis. The second half was no different with the Kenyans keeping their feet on the pedal.

Asego’s long pass from midfield was captured by Victor Odour at the wing whose strong bust of pace released Biko Adema to make a 50-metre dash to the try line with the Kenyan fans cheering him on.

Fiji pulled back a try from Orisi Sareki, but the Kenyans were not intent on letting them have any breathing space as just after the restart by the Fijians, Victor Odour sneaked in a cheeky grabber which he collected and passed to his captain Kayange, who had no problem denting the little hope Fiji had gathered.

Fiji were crashed by the Kayange try and they started to make mistakes which proved to be costly in the end when they were pinned in their 22 and an intercept by Kayange was converted by his brother Injera, who sealed the fate of the now former champs with a 26-7 win.

Kenya were not too fortunate in the semis where a strong puma side proved too stubborn to break. The two teams fought it out for a place in the finals in a tightly contested match that ended 12-0 in favour of Argentina.

Argentina scored a try in each half after long physical spells of possession, with Kenya unable to crack any holes in the puma’s defence. The sevens team will be proud of their first ever semi final appearance in the world cup which will come with huge benefits for the players.

Each player was promised 250,000 shillings by safaricom if they reached the semi finals and this will be in addition to the cash rewards promised by the government via Sports Minister Prof Helen Sambili.