BY BS MULAVI

Kenya National Sevens Rugby team experienced mixed fortunes on the first day of the London Leg of the International Rugby Board Sevens circuit.

Marshalled by head coach Mike Friday, the side stormed into the event with a convincing 31-19 victory over arch rivals Wales in their first group match of the day, with this victory lifting the team spirit of the side ahead of their next fixture of the day against the reigning champions New Zealand.

Right from kick off Kenya seemed as the switched on side, with Kenya Harlequin winger Willy Ambaka getting the first touch of the ball to sprint almost 40 meters before New Zealand’s David Raikuni illegally tapped down the ball from Ambaka’s pass.

This illegal tap down saw New Zealand drop to six men with the sweeper sent to the sin bin for two minutes. Kenya did not relent on their attack and pressed on to score the second try of the game through Oscar Ouma much to the delight of the roaring crowd at the Twickenham stadium.

All seemed to be going Kenya’s way until Ambaka had to be substituted giving way for his Kenya Harlequin teammate Eden Agero to join into play. The game was not particularly beautiful, with a few scrappy passes from Kenya, but nevertheless they were able to maintain possession enough to warrant a third try, which eventually came through Kenya’s all-time top try scorer Collins Injera.

Carnival mood

At the stroke of half-time, it all seemed unbelievable with Kenya having their dream start against the defending champions who at this juncture had barely touched the ball and only had five passes to their name without a single chance to reach Kenya’s 22.

Fans were in carnival mood and all cards indicated Kenya was on their way to an emphatic hammering of the world champs.

However, on the blowing of the whistle for the second half, the script seemed to have changed even though the cast remained the same.

New Zealand clearly wanted to prove that indeed they are the world champions and Kenya were the innocent victims on the receiving end.

Five unanswered tries from the Kiwis saw Kenya lose their lead and eventually slump to a somewhat embarrassing 33-17 loss at the hands of the current circuit leaders.

New Zealand cannot take all credit for the victory, as they simply capitalized on some basic mistakes made by Kenya.

With Kenya 17-0 up at the beginning of the second half, they opted to kick away possession in an attempt to waste time and gain territorial advantage but this just helped New Zealand reorganise and launch a full throttle assault which culminated in Kenya’s crushed hopes.