Collins Injera clocked his 80th World Sevens Series tournament in the opening match against England at the Hamilton 7s. To mark this milestone, Injera led the team out of the tunnel in this encounter where Shujaa lost 19-24 on the early morning of Saturday 25th January 2020.
William Ambaka landed a brace in the first half of the match. In the first try, he sliced through his defenders while Shujaa were deep in their half running down the almost 70M stretch of the pitch to land the opening try of the match.
Taabu’s conversion was short, Shujaa holding on to the early 5-0. It was watered down to a 5-5 draw when Ollie Lindsay-Hague dotted down his side’s try whose conversion was unsuccessful.
Injera was at the heart of Ambaka’s second try as he drew in defenders before offloading to Billy Odhiambo who then set up Ambaka to head down for his brace right under the posts. Conversion splitting the posts for a 5-12 score. Barely a minute later, Andrew Amonde registered his name on the try-scorers’ list as he landed Shujaa’s third try, Taabu’s conversion bringing the score to 5-19.
England maximized on their ball possession in the dying minutes of the first half to go over the whitewash through Dan Norton’s try and Tom Mitchell’s conversion. Half time score reading 12-19 in favor of Shujaa.
In the second half, Shujaa was starved of the ball turning their next seven minutes into a defensive session. Despite their efforts to hold off England, they conceded two tries with one being converted successfully, England securing the late 24-19 win.
Shujaa faces Japan at 8:08 am in their second pool match before meeting South Africa on early Sunday morning at 2:13 am.
