Simbas in poor start to World Cup chase

Kenya Simbas made a poor start to the Rugby World Cup 2019 Repechage tournament in Marseille, France after falling to a 65-19 defeat to Canada in their opening match at the Stade Pierre Delort, yesterday.

The winner of the four-nation round-robin competition involving Kenya, Canada, Germany and Hong Kong, who were due to clash last evening, will join reigning champions New Zealand, South Africa, Italy and Namibia in Group B of next year’s global showpiece in Japan.

The North American side scored ten tries, six conversions and a penalty to bag a winning bonus point against Kenya’s three tries.

Canada’s record try scorer Van Der Merwe was the hero of the day, grounding a hattrick of tries as full-back Theo Sauder and lock Brett Beukeboom touched down twice each for the emphatic win.

Canada’s other tries were scored by Tyler Ardron, Mike Shephard and Matt Evans as fly-half Gordon McRorie claimed 13 points with the boot.

.

Keep Reading

•  vivo ushers in a new era of portrait photography with the slim and premium-designed V30
•  Kuppet, TSC agree on promotion of 30,000 teachers
•  vivo V30 5G launching in Kenya: Step into the future with style
•  Inside Ruto's Sh16 trillion last-ditch plan to save Vision 2030Premium
•  We have hit some good Vision 2030 milestones but missed key targetsPremium

Wilson K’opondo, George Nyambua and Leo Seje scored a try each for the East Africans with Sammy Oliech and Darwin Mukidza adding the extras.

Canada showed intent from onset, capitalizing on Kenya’s poor tackling to take the lead through Gordon McRorie’s penalty before Matt Heaton made it 6-0. Kenya then earned a penalty but Mukidza booted his effort wide before instrumental Merwe scored the first converted try for Canada.

Beukeboom would grab a second converted try for Canada before K’opondo pulled one try back for Kenya, but Mukidza missed the conversion.

Merwe made it 20-5 after McRorie’s conversion miss. However, Kenya responded immediately through Seje’s converted try but his celebration were cut short by Sauder’s converted try on the stroke of halftime, handing Canada a 27-12 lead.

Nyambua temporarily brought Ian Snook’s men back into the game after the breather when he crashed over for a converted try to make it 27-19.

However, like a wounded a lion, the Canadians responded quickly, scoring six converted tries without reply to open a 20-point lead.

Kenya face Hong Kong in the next fixture on November 17 as Canada battle with Germany in the second round of the tournament.