Brave Kenyans battle back after loss to England to see off France and USA
Rugby
By
Rodgers Eshitemi
| Apr 28, 2018
Kenya will renew their rivalry with World Sevens Series leaders South Africa when the two African sides clash this morning (Sunday) in a highly anticipated Singapore Sevens quarter-final match at the Singapore National Stadium.
Shujaa, who clinched their first ever Series tournament at the same venue in 2016, booked a date with the Blitzboks after winning two of yesterday’s Group B matches on day one of the eighth round of the 2017/2018 World Sevens Series.
In the other quarter-finals, Fiji will clash with New Zealand as England take on Samoa, while Australia will battle with Spain.
Kenya bounced back from the devastating 28-19 defeat to England to thrash France 34-0 and USA 33-14 to finish second behind unbeaten group winners England.
Kenya went into the decisive final group match against USA a more rejuvenated side. It didn’t take long for the 2016 Singapore champions to open the scoring as William Ambaka outpaced Danny Barrett to land Shujaa’s first try, but Sammy Oliech missed the conversion.
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However, Oliech made amends immediately, grounding a converted try to make the scores 12-0.
Kevon Williams brought Mike Friday’s side back into the game with a converted try at the stroke of halftime.
But Kenya continued from where they left off in the first half, with Oliech capitalising on USA’s kick off error to regain possession.
Oliech would grab his second try of the game before Andrew Amonde and Oscar Ouma grounded a converted try each to extend Kenya’s lead.
Amonde combined well with Jeff Oluoch to score his 50th World Sevens Series try before Ouma dummied his marker to score Kenya’s fifth try.
Brett Thompson pulled a try back for the Americans, but it couldn't stop the East Africans from progressing to the last eight.
Prior to the USA victory, Innocent Simiyu’s charges had produced a masterclass performance to demolish France 34-0.
Collins Injera stole the show scoring a hattrick of tries as Billy Odhiambo touched down twice with Andrew Amonde grounding the sixth try for Kenya to get their quarterfinals qualification campaign back on track.
Meanwhile, Mean Machine have been promoted back to the Kenya Cup after beating Western Bulls 18-0 in yesterday’s KRU Championship semifinal match at the UoN Grounds.
Machine and Bulls were relegated to the second tier last season after finishing bottom two.