Rugby: Kenya’s Shujaa fail in bid to reach medal bracket

Kenya have been locked out of the medal bracket of the Commonwealth Games men’s rugby sevens after finishing second in Group C at the Robina Stadium, Australia.

Despite winning two of their preliminary round matches yesterday, Shujaa crumbled when it mattered most and failed to live up to their expectations after going down 40-7 to eventual group winners New Zealand, in a decisive second match of the day.

Collins Injera said there were high expectations on the team after finishing second at the last two World Series tournaments.

“We really wanted a medal here but the match against New Zealand dented our chances,” said Injera, who made his third stab at the Club Games after New Delhi (2010) and Glasgow (2014).

Kenya started their Gold Coast campaign on a positive note by beating Canada 26-10 before losing to All Blacks. They bounced back to wrap up their preliminary round action with an emphatic 47-0 victory over their fellow Africans Zambia.

However, the result was not good enough to see them qualify for the last four, hence dropping to the classification matches.

Arthur Owira, Jeff Oluoch, Nelson Oyoo, Billy Odhiambo and Collins Injera grounded a try apiece with Eden Agero managing four conversions to hand Shujaa a comfortable 33-0 halftime lead against Zambia.

Oyoo and Oluoch then bagged their second converted tries of the day to complete the rout. [Jonathan Komen]