Kenya Sevens finish fifth at Dubai 7s

Kenya Rugby Sevens team, Morans' Alvin Otieno (left), Akwei Monate and Vincent Onyala celebrates during Safari Sevens after beating South Africa at Rugby Football Union Grounds on Sunday, Oct 20, 2019. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Johnstone Olindi scored a hat-trick as Kenya Sevens thrashed rivals Uganda 36-5 on Friday evening to finish fifth in the final leg of the Emirates Dubai Invitational Sevens tournament played at the Sevens Stadium in Dubai.

Johnstone Olindi gave Kenya a 7-0 lead after capitalizing on Uganda’s ball handling error to score between the posts before Tony Omondi added the extras.

Jacob Ojee made it 12-0 after touching down from the left wing as Omondi saw his effort for the twos go wide.

Olindi would bag his brace with another centre post try that Omondi converted for a 19-0 lead before Uganda scored their only try of the game through Aaron Ofoywroth with Philip Wokorach missing the twos.

Alvin Otieno would however restore Shujaa’s 19-point lead with a late try in the opening half to lead 24-5.

In the second half, Olindi completed his hat trick of tries with a corner post try before Vincent Onyala sealed the win with a late try.

Earlier on the day, Shujaa were knocked out of the Dubai Sevens Main Cup after losing to Chile in the quarterfinals played on Friday morning.

Chile shocked Kenya 14-12 to sail through to the semifinals as Kenya dropped to the Plate Cup semifinals.

Kenya at Dubai 7s. [Courtesy-Dubai 7s]

In the fifth place semis, Kenya saw off a stubborn Spain 27-15 to glide into the finals where they defeated Uganda.

On the opening day of the tourney, Kenya finished top of Pool Blue after winning all their three matches.

Kenya saw off Spain (17-14), Canada (21-10) and Uganda (28-10) to lead the pool with nine points, an improvement from their performance witnessed last weekend during the first leg of the event where they finished a distanced third.

Meanwhile, Kenya Lionesses finished fifth ahead of Japan despite failing to win any of their six matches they played in a round-robin format against USA, Brazil, Japan, Canada and France. 

On the opening day, Lionesses lost 22-5 to Canada in the opening match before going down 31-5 to France.

The Lionesses were then denied a win by Japan after the Asians rallied in the second half to hold Kenya to a 10-10 draw.

On Friday, Kenya suffered three after narrowly going down 15-12 against Brazil followed by a 22-10 defeat to USA and 43-0 against Japan.

Dubai 7s Final Men standings

1st Argentina

2nd Canada

3rd France

4th Chile

5th Kenya

6th Uganda

7th Japan

8th Spain