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The Nairobian

Kenya face New Zealand

Politics

By The Standard Sports | Mar 28, 2010

By BS Mulavi in Hong Kong

Mistakes are what will cost Kenya or New Zealand a place in the semi finals of the Hong Kong leg of the IRB sevens circuit.

Coach Benjamin Ayimba said the main cup quarterfinal match between them and New Zealand at 8:17 on Sunday will be determined by the team with the least mistakes.

"Every team will make mistakes, but the team with the least and the team that recovers fastest from their mistakes will definitely carry the day," said Ayimba.

Kenya qualified for the quarterfinals despite losing to South Africa 21-7 in their last pool match and are therefore paired to play with the series leaders with whom they share a fierce rivalry.

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"South Africa had to win that game to make it to the quarters. Had they lost they would have been relegated to the bowl, so they came at us with everything they had and we lost," said Ayimba.

"I still have faith that we will beat New Zealand despite today’s loss and we will win the main title if we can regain our momentum."

Ayimba went on to assure Kenyans that they did not suffer any major injuries in the highly physical duel that saw Lavin Asego and Brian Nyikuli receive knocks.

"A local rivalry will always be tough. South Africa wanted to reaffirm they are top guns. It’s the same as when Fiji meet Samoa or New Zealand or Australia. It’ll be physical and tough," he said.

Earlier in the day, Kenya survived an early scare from an equally physical Zimbabwea that held them to a barren draw to the last minute of the first half.

It took Kenya a whole seven minutes of swinging the ball from wing to wing before a chip from Lavin Asego helped to open up space for Innocent Simiyu who was a sure shot to score.

Kenya went into the break leading by a slim 5-0 margin and it took two sin bins to Alex Ndangana and Gardener Nechironga for Kenya to have a two-man advantage and take a commanding lead through tries from Collins Injera and Lavin Asego.

Biko Adema put the last nail in Zimbabwe’s coffin when he picked up a cheeky offload from Impala centre Innocent Simiyu to score a centre post try which he went on to convert.

Ayimba rued the teams approach in the first half, saying they tended to get sucked into the contact instead of pulling away and forcing the opposition to work to get to them.

"We played to their strength but once we got back into the game we beat a good team," he added.