Shujaa off to poor start in Sydney Sevens showpiece

A 26-21 defeat to Wales completed a miserable start for Kenya’s Shujaa in the Sydney Sevens at the Bankwest Stadium in Australia yesterday.

Shujaa were beaten 28-14 by Fiji in their opener and the second successive loss in pool A meant that the East Africans were out of the running for the Main Cup semi-finals.

Kenya went to the Sydney event on the back of an eighth-place finish at the Hamilton Sevens and it was their loss to struggling Wales that left a bad taste in the mouths of the home boys.

Shujaa’s inability to protect leads is a significant factor which has been derailing the team in recent matches and that weakness came to the fore yet again yesterday particularly in their defeat to the Welshmen.

Shujaa put up a gallant fight against Wales and should have won the Wales match but were undone by the late dismissals of Johnstone Olindi and Nelson Oyoo who were sent to the sin bin for different infringements when the team was holding a commanding 21-12 lead.

The two losses saw Kenya’s hopes of progressing to the Main Cup semi-finals evaporate since Paul Feeney’s charges were left languishing at last position in pool A with two points.

Captain Andrew Amonde opened the scoring for Kenya against Wales, getting on the end of Collins Injera’s kick to score a try that was converted by Daniel Taabu.

Wales didn’t take much time in responding as they got a five-pointer through Will Thomas’ solo effort which reduced their deficit to two points.

The former Sevens World Cup champions would then take a 12-7 lead to half-time after Luke Treharne scored a converted try.

Shujaa were temporarily reduced to six men in the second half as Geoffrey Okwach was shown his marching orders for a dangerous tackle.

However, the youngster’s dismissal did not deter Kenya from reclaiming their lead through Injera’s try which was converted.

Daniel Taabu stretched Kenya’s lead but there was a twist in the match as Oyoo and Olindi were sent off with Wales making the most of their numerical advantage to snatch the win through two converted tries by Will Jones and Ben Roach.

Fiji, who stunned New Zealand 26-5 in their second fixture, remained top of the pool with six points while the New Zealanders and Wales were level on four points.

Kenya was due to face series leaders New Zealand in their final match of preliminaries at 5:41 am today.