Kenya Sevens national team Shujaa were forced to come from behind 19-7 down to start their Pool “A” fixtures on a bright note after thrashing Zimbabwe 24-19 at the Africa Men’s Sevens in Kampala, Uganda on Saturday.
Kenya’s Alvin “Buffa” Otieno kicked off Shujaa’s revival in the second half before Bush Mwale’s converted try brought scores to 19-19.
Mwamba RFC utility Daniel Taabu scored Kenya’s last try at the death to deny the Zimbabweans victory.
Zimbabwe were leading at the break 12-7 following Anthony Omondi’s yellow card that saw the lad be sent to the bin for an infringement.
Madagascar currently leads the group after humiliating Namibia 41-0. However, they will have to win against Kenya in the last game of the day to confirm their qualification to the next stage.
Only the top two teams will advance to the semi-finals. Kenya’s next match is against Namibia at 4.22pm.
Mauritius, Botswana, Ghana and Burundi were eliminated in round one and dropped to the Challenge Trophy.
Kenya Sevens head coach Innocent Simiyu is focused on delivering Rugby World Cup Sevens (RWC 7s) qualification by defending the Africa Sevens Cup hosted by Uganda at the Kyadondo Rugby Club.
“The main target here is to qualify for the Rugby World Cup. We are confident that we are going to make the country proud as the defending champions.
We want to keep it that way as we head to the World Cup as Africa one. The squad is experienced with only one debutant – to the tea,m,” Simiyu said.
Team Kenya will be skippered by Nelson Oyoo who is one of the eight players who have been retained from the squad that just returned from World series competitions in Singapore and Vancouver.
The other three debutants are Augustine Lugonzo, Timothy Mmasi and Alvin Otieno. For the RWC 7s ticket, Shujaa will need to be in the medal bracket as all the three medalists will qualify for the 7s World Cup to be hosted in Cape Town in September.
Kenya has already earned one of the two slots joining South Africa in the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July.
Round one results:
Kenya 19 Senegal 0
Uganda 71 Burundi 0
Zimbabwe 12 Burkina Faso 14
Madagascar 52 Botswana 0
Namibia 19 Ghana 10
Zambia 33 Cameroon 7
Tunisia 14 Mauritius 7
Round two results:
Madagascar 41 Namibia 0
Kenya 24 Zimbabwe 19
Challenge Trophy:
Botswana 7 Mauritius 26
