Kenya fail in bid to secure World Cup ticket

Kenya's Sason Onsomu (centre)pass ball as Johannes Stander (left) and Kudzai Mashawi (right) of Zimbabwe looks on during Rugby Africa Gold Cup at RFUEA Stadium Grounds on Saturday, June 30, 2018. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya Simbas’ hopes of featuring in next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan went up in smoke yesterday.

They threw away a 12-7 first half lead to lose 42-17 to Hong Kong in their second match of the Repechage tournament at the Stade Pierre Delort, Marseille.

This was Ian Snooks men’s second heavy defeat in a row after losing 65-19 to favourites Canada in last weekend’s opening match.

Many expected the Simbas to step up against the familiar Asian opposition, but unfortunately they did the opposite in the second half to end their World Cup dreams with a game to spare.

Kenya face Germany in their final dead-rubber match on November 23. The victory saw Hong Kong, who lost 26-19 to Germany in their tournament opener, go level on points (five) with leaders Canada.

Kenya started off the brighter side with Sammy Oliech successfully converting Tony Onyango’s try before Collins Injera set up Elkeans Musonye to score a converted try.

However, Hong Kong pulled a try back to make the scores 12-7 at the break.

But on resumption, Thomas Lamboley inspired Hong Kong’s comeback with a brace of tries as Toby Fenn, Nick Hewson, Lewis Werner and Max Denmark grounded a try each.

Meanwhile, former champions Nondescripts kicked off the 2018-19 Kenya Cup campaign with a 20-14 win over Homeboyz RFC at the RFUEA Grounds, yesterday.

Willis Ojal’s charges ran in two tries, two conversions, a drop-goal and a penalty against Homeboyz two converted tries.

Nondies drew the first blood courtesy of a Martin Juma drop-goal before extending their lead to 10-0 through Ernest Ngong’s converted try.

The Deejays would not go down without a fight as debutante Henry Ayah played a pass to Bush Mwale who fended off his markers on his way to scoring a try converted by Ayah.

Ayah had a chance to score yet again but he booted his penalty effort wide.

The former Kenya international would then make amends for his earlier miss when he perfectly converted Stanley Isogol’s five-pointer to hand his side a 14-10 lead at the break.

Nondies came back into the second half a more rejuvenated side, braving the wet conditions to score a converted try through Brian Njenga before Juma’s penalty completed the comeback. Homeboyz’ attempt to bounce back were thwarted severally by a resolute Nondies backline and they would be dealt a blow when two of their tries were ruled out.