Kenya's centre fails to hold in Glasgow Sevens
Rugby
By
BS MULAVI
| May 10, 2015
It was yet another sad day for the national Sevens rugby team as they once again dropped to the Bowl competition of the Scotland leg of the World Rugby HSBC World Sevens Series.
Two defeats at the hands of New Zealand (22-7) and South Africa (22-5) meant they did not have to wait for their third game against Samoa to know their fate.
Kenya will, however, not feel hard done by the victories given that they lost to two of the best teams in the series currently. In their first game of the day against the Kiwis, the defending champions took an early lead from kick-off scoring two tries before half time and eventually added two more after the break for them to assume cruise control.
Kenya only got their rhythm in the final minutes of the game where after a short battle of possession, they scored through Augustine Lugonzo.
In their second game against South Africa, Kenya started off better and took a 5-0 lead courtesy of Collins Injera and managed to hold on to it until half time.
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But a rejuvenated South Africa were able to turn on the screws in the second half to score four tries that saw them qualify for the Main Cup quarterfinal and relegate Kenya to the Bowl Quarterfinals.
It will be nothing new for Kenya as they have six times this season been relegated from the Main Cup competition due to the same reasons, which include inability to retain possession against the so-called big teams, a porous defence especially on the second phase of play and lack of creativity when in possession of the ball.
Head coach Felix Ochieng' will have to think of a new way to get the boys to actually do these things. Changing the team has not changed the results much and changing the coaches has not brought in new strategies as well, with the exception of when Mike Friday was coach.