Why Shujaa need to pull up their socks

Shujaa vice captain Jacob Ojee prepares for training at the RFUEA grounds ahead of the Los Angeles and Vancouver Sevens. Feb 20, 2020. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Kenya’s hopes of reaching the Main Cup quarter-finals of the Los Angeles Sevens were shattered as they finished last in pool B after registering one win and two losses.

It was Shujaa’s 24-0 drubbing by Canada in their final match of the preliminaries yesterday that sealed their fate, with Paul Feeney’s men dropping to the ninth-place quarter-finals where they were scheduled to face Samoa last night.

Kenya, who are 11th on the overall World Sevens Series standings with 26 points, were once again undone by inconsistent performances just as was the case at the Hamilton and Sydney events.

Shujaa recovered from a 31-5 loss to South Africa in their opening match to beat Ireland 29-12, a result that gave them a glimmer of hope ahead of the Canada fixture, which they were supposed to win for them to progress to the Main Cup quarter-finals.

Perhaps the pressure that comes with a must-win game took its toll on the Kenyan national team as they struggled to assert themselves against the Canadians, who scored four unanswered tries coupled with two conversions to end the East Africans’ quest of reaching the last eight for the second time this season.

Kenya’s only appearance in the Main Cup quarter-finals this term was at the Cape Town tournament in South Africa where they were eliminated by the hosts.

Against Canada, the writing was on the wall for Kenya early in the first half when Andrew Amonde was sent to the sin-bin for an infringement.

Canada then utilised their numerical advantage as they managed to race to a 10-0 lead during the two-minute period after the Kenyan captain was temporarily dismissed.

Canada, who will host the sixth leg of the 2019-20 World Sevens Series in Vancouver this weekend, held on to the slim advantage at half-time before Justin Douglas, who had scored their first two tries, completed his hat-trick with three minutes left.

Nathan Hiriyama later added a conversion to Phil Berna’s five pointer as Kenya succumbed to their heaviest defeat against Canada in recent times.

It was the first time this season that Shujaa lost a match without scoring any point.

KCB youngster Vincent Onyala put up a man-of-the-match showing in Kenya’s meeting with Ireland after helping himself to three tries.

Onyala’s 15 points were complemented by two other tries from Oscar Dennis and Collins Injera.

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