KENYA BACK TO CLOUD SEVEN: Ayimba boys hold England, upset S Africa and Zim in Cape Town IRB leg

RUGBYU-SEVENS-ENG-KEN Richard de Carpentier (C) of England is tackled by three players from Kenya during their rugby match of the Dubai leg of IRB's Sevens World Series on December 4, 2015. AFP PHOTO / MARWAN NAAMANI

The Kenya Sevens Team seems to be back to their old winning ways after they drew with England 19-19 and beat South Africa 14-12 and Zimbabwe 36 - 0 at the Cape Town 7s in South Africa yesterday.

Playing in the second leg of the World Rugby International Sevens Series, the players have put behind their horrendous performance in Dubai last weekend and have got their act together.

Many have argued that the team could have done better in the match against England but they will still be content with the result.

In the first match, Kenya squandered a 19-7 lead to draw 19-19 with England. In the other matches of the pool, Zimbabwe lost to South Africa 5-26 and to England 0-43.

Even though it was their opponents who drew the first blood, Kenya were able to equalise and eventually take the lead through Oscar Ouma and Willy Ambaka, both who did not take part in the series last season.

Kenya had to defend their lead for long spells in the second half and eventually buckled under pressure to let in England and settle for the draw. Which understandably put some serious doubt on their fitness levels and their ability to compete at the high levels.

It got harder for the side as their next game was against the hosts South Africa, who were leading the group after beaing Zimbabwe in the their first game of the pool and were buoyed by their brilliant performance last season.

If Kenya were to enhance their chances of qualification to the Main Cup, only victory would have made it easy for them. This was no easy task considering South Africa hold a more superior record to Kenya in their head-to-head record.

In a twist of events, two tries by Collins Injera and Willy Ambaka proved enough to separate the two sides who finished the tense game at 14-12 in Kenya’s favour.

In a nail-biting match that also saw Oscar Ouma sin-binned in the dying minutes, Kenya were proud that they were once again fighting against the best and getting good results, something that was once considered a thing of the past.

Before embarking on the season, head coach Benjamin Ayimba had emphasised that his concentration was on building the team and getting back a string of consistent results similar to when he was back at the helm four years ago.

Kenya has once again shown the will to attack and take the ball forward, but what is left is the ability to hold the ball for long spells and defend for an equal period should they be called to do so.

Yesterday’s showing in Cape Town will definitely do well to boost their spirits as they head into today’s Main Cup quarters, and in the circuit as a whole.