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Worrying signs for Shujaa as three rounds count for survival

Shujaa have not had a great start so far

Kenya Shujaa is scratching its heads even as calculators are out to determine their fate in the 2024/25 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Shujaa have not had a great start so far after promotion back to the series and will need to switch it on a notch. Coach Kevin “Bling “Wambua has made some changes and brought back some experience in the shape of Vincent Onyala and Tony Omondi to  act as a supporting cast to the likes of Patrick Odongo, George Ooro and Co-Captain  Samuel Asati.

However the team is once again in troubled waters and in ninth place near the playoff zone. In their latest foray at the Perth 7s, Shujaa lost to New Zealand 19-12 in a thriller in the final for ninth place playoffs to finish 10th overall. Wambua’s side has 14 points in the bag with three legs to go. In the last leg held in Cape Town, South Africa, the Shujaa team finished eighth overall.

In the previous rounds, the team beat USA 26-21 in the 9th Place semifinal on Saturday. On their way to the 9th place semifinal, Shujaa had suffered a 29-14 loss in the hands of New Zealand in the opening fixture followed by a narrow 21-14 loss to Fiji in Pool C to wrap up their day one action.

There was some respite and reprieve when giant killers Uruguay who had beaten New Zealand in the Group stage, ended up losing to a rejuvenated Kenya 19-5 in their best tournament game since the season began. Kenya’s three tries came through in busy fashion via Kevin Wekesa, Nygel Amaitsa and Patrick Odongo. Experienced fly-half Tony Omondi converted Wekesa’s and Odongo’s tries while Uruguay’s Tomas Etcheverry landed their sole try in the match.

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Against New Zealand in the semis, Shujaa made four tries via a Patrick Odongo brace and a single each from Francis Wabwire and George Ooro. Tony Omondi had two conversions in. Amaitsa converted one to bring Kenya’s total tally to 26. USA landed three converted tries for the full time score to read 26-21 in Kenya’s favor.

Meanwhile Coach Wambua was unhappy with not finishing top eight almost falling short of his team’s overall inexperience. “We are scoring tries against the top 8 teams with a young squad with 3/4 of the team playing in the series for the first time, also going toe to toe with them shows us that we are on the right path and our systems are working so we will continue to trust our process.” said Wambua.

“We are picking up valuable lessons off every game win or lose and I know we will get better, we have to get better in order to achieve our season goal which is stay in the top 8. We know that there is no room for errors at the big stage so we have to learn and adapt fast.”

 

 

 

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