On Saturday 7th December, Kenya Sevens beat Australia 19-12 in their opening match of the 2024 Cape Town 7s at the Cape Town Stadium.
Australia drew first blood in the first four minutes of the match as James Turner crossed over the whitewash and Hayden Sargeant adding the extras in the second minute and a minute later Hayden Sargeant landed his side’s second try but the conversion was unsuccessful. They held on to the 12-0 lead till the break.
The second half saw Shujaa cross over the try line as Kevin Wekesa cut through the Aussie defense line to land a corner post that was skillfully converted by Nygel Amaitsa. Two minutes later, Shujaa sent the ball wide to find Denis Abukuse who had enough room for a grabber kick, which he took and chased the ball ready to land Shujaa’s second try, however, a tackle on him without the ball resulted in the Australian tackler receiving a yellow card and as a result, Shujaa was awarded a penalty try.
Co-Captain George Ooro, had the pleasure of scoring the last try in the match as he attacked the blindside off a ruck as Shujaa attacked deep in their opponents half. Though the conversion was unsuccessful, Shujaa held on to this lead till full time.
In the second match, they faced Spain at 3:16pm EAT where they suffered a narrow 14-7 loss. Spain were first to register points on the score card as Francisco Cosculluela cut through the Kenyan defensive line to land and convert his own try at the break. Come second half, the ball Tony Omondi played in Patrick Odongo who did not waste any chance at showing the Spaniards how fast the Kenyans can be, he rounded his defenders and raced down almost 50M to land Shujaa’s center post try that was converted by Nygel Amaitsa.
Despite Shujaa’s relentless efforts to take the lead in this match, an infringement in their 22M saw them penalized and Spain maximized on this. Forming a ruck on the right side of the pitch, Francisco spotted a gab in Shujaa’s defensive line and quickly made his way to the try line landing their second converted try.
They held on to this lead to full time.
Photo courtesy of: Arigi Obiero
