Shujaa kicked off their Capetown campaign with a 24-19 win over Manu Samoa in the second match of the three-day tournament.
The ravaging Alvin Otieno’s presence was felt from the onset as he made his way to Samoa’s territory carrying defenders with him. Eventually getting tackled, forming a ruck that set up Daniel Sikuta to land Shujaa’s opening try, Taabu’s conversion sailing wide for an early 5-0 lead. Sensational fly half Daniel Taabu was at the center of two tries. In the first one, off a penalty against Samoa, Taabu’s tapped the ball, side-stepped his defenders open up their defensive line for him to slice through before offloading to Sikuta. In a 2v1 defense, Sikuta easily passed the ball to Alvin Otieno who landed Shujaa’s second try.
At the restart, Samoa exploited a gap in Shujaa’s defensive line paving way for Joe Perez to land his side’s first try, conversion splitting the posts for a 10-7 scoreline. Alvin Otieno in his full element fended off three defenders and was well on his fourth before he and his supporting man formed a ruck. The ball found its way into Taabu’s hands and he danced past his defenders as he raced down for his try at the stroke of halftime. His conversion making it 17-7 to Shujaa.
Billy Odhiambo was next on the scoreboard as he scored Shujaa’s fourth and final try with Taabu adding the extras. Shujaa would then concede two tries in this half, one successfully converted while the other drifted wide.
They face Australia and Ireland on Saturday 14th December at 11:57 am and 5:47 pm EAT respectively.
