Rugby: It's same old story as Shujaa falter again in USA assignment

Shujaa's Andrew Amonde in a training session. [Jonah Onyango]

Kenya’s national rugby Sevens head coach Paul Feeney will be forced to go back to the drawing board yet again after his charges flopped at the Los Angeles tournament in USA over the weekend.

Shujaa travelled to the fifth leg of the 2019-20 World Sevens Series on the back of a disappointing performance in Sydney, Australia but there was no reprieve for them in USA as they managed only two wins with four of their fixtures ending in losses.

The below-par showing during the two-day event at the Dignity Health Sports Park saw Feeney’s men collect a paltry three points as they remained rooted in 11th position on the overall standings with 29 points.

Not even a changed format, which saw the top two teams in each of the four pools advance to the Main Cup quarter-finals, was enough to turn around the Kenyans’ fortunes.

Shujaa lost to South Africa in their tournament opener, before showing signs of revival in their second match as they overcame Ireland 29-12.

[Clement Wekulo]

But they would miss out on the last eight following a 24-0 drubbing at the hands of Canada, a match which the Kenyans were undone by indiscipline after captain Andrew Amonde was temporarily dismissed early in the first half.

It is such inconsistent performances that Feeney will have to address as the team heads to Vancouver, Canada for the sixth leg of the Series slated for this weekend.

The New Zealander set a top eight finish as his team’s target at the beginning of the campaign and as its stands, the difference between Shujaa and Argentina, who are ranked eighth, is 24 points.

Having finished bottom of pool B in the Los Angels Sevens, Shujaa were relegated to the ninth-place quarter-finals where they lost 28-19 to Samoa.

The team then recovered to beat Wales 29-5 in the 13th-place semi-finals.They succumbed to their third loss of the tournament after going down 29-24 to Scotland yesterday in the 13th-place decider that had to be settled in extra time.

With the Scots leading 17-5 at half-time, Shujaa rallied to take a 24-17 advantage through tries by Billy Odhiambo, Samuel Oliech and Andrew Amonde.

Kenya failed to protect their lead as they allowed Max Mcfarland to send the game to extra time with a converted try before Alec Coombes sealed the win for his team.

Meanwhile, South Africa’s Blitzboks were crowned the Los Angeles Sevens winners after staging a comeback to defeat Fiji 29-24 in the final.