The Kenya National Sevens Rugby Men’s team kicked off their 2024 Dubai Sevens campaign with two losses and one victory on Saturday 30th November at The Sevens Stadium.
The opening match against France resulted in a 19-19 full-time score but with the new rules in the sport, they went into golden point as their must be a winner in each match. Gregoire Arfeuil, Celian Pouzelgues and Ali Dabo dotten down a try each with Paulin Riva and Enahemo Artaud adding the extras for France. Co- Captain George Ooro landed Kenya’s first try which followed by the speedstar that is Patrick Odongo with Nygel Amaitsa converting both tries. Ben Salem landed Kenya’s third try leveling the scores. In extra time, it was France’s Ali Dabo who scored a corner-post try handing his side their first victory.
The second match was an African derby which proved to be a cracker of a match as Kevin Wambua’s charges were unstoppable in the first half of the encounter against South Africa. Kevin Wekesa landed the opening unconverted try in the second minute; they kept the possession and gradually gained meters into the opponents half and this resulted in Nygel Amaitsa going over the whitewash and extending his try with a conversion giving Shujaa the 12-0 lead.
A well-read grabber kick from Amaitsa bounced in Odongo’s favour, he nudged it a bit more for it to get to the try box before grounding it. The conversion was unsuccessful, the scores at the break reading 17-0 in Shujaa’s favour. The second half South Africa were more dominant and despite Shujaa’s efforts to regain possession of the ball, it was increasingly becoming a challenge that led to the Blitzboks dotting down three tries with one converted successfully. The scoreboard read 17-17 with less than a minute to play. The undying spirit displayed by Shujaa was evident as Amaitsa chased down a loose ball with Soyizwapi closely defending but Amaitsa’s sleek grounding of the ball in the try box, secured Shujaa’s victory over the Blitzboks.
The final match did not go Shujaa’s way as Australia were victorious with a 31-14 victory. The two losses and a win see Shujaa drop to the ranking playoff matches where they will play Ireland on Sunday 1st December at 1:06pm EAT.
