Kenya Chipu on Saturday progressed through to the semifinals of the Rugby Africa Under-20 Barthes Trophy after hammering neighbors Uganda 44-20 in the quarterfinal match played at Nyayo Stadium.
The hosts took an early 10-0 lead after Patrick Wainaina and Wycliffe Ogutu's unconverted tries before Ogutu completed a double for 15-0 lead.
New Chipu captain Laban Kipsang showed his leadership qualities moments before the break after stretching Kenya's lead to 22-0 before Uganda responded with an unconverted try.
Jeremy Odhiambo, Patrick Wainaina, Mike Oduor, Victor Odhiambo, and Eddy Wambugu would seal the win in the final half.
Meanwhile, defending champions Zimbabwe kick started their title defense with a resounding 55-0 win over Ivory Coast. Heading into the game, Zimbabwe were favorites and they did the tag justice by racing to a 31-0 lead by halftime.
Dion Khumalo scored the game's first try with Brandon Marume missing the ensuing conversion. Tanaka Ndoro, Alex Nyamuda, and Allan Mawunga (2) then got ZImbabwe's first-half tries with Brandon Marume managing three conversions.
Overall, Zimbabwe scored a total of nine tries with danger man Marume managing five conversions. Ivory Coast did not do their chances of winning the game any justice when Karim Traore received his marching orders in the 44th minute after receiving his second yellow card. This paved way for Zimbabwe to score 24 unanswered points in the second half.
Tunisia upset Madagascar 50-16 in the third quarterfinal as Namibia defeated Zambia 20-12.
