Kenya’s inconsistent campaign
at the
World Sevens Series continued in Paris when they picked just a point to finish 14th in the 16-team tournament.
Kenya were relegated to the Challenge trophy for the seventh time this season after posting mixed results in their preliminary matches in Pool ‘C’.
Kenya lost the opener 20-14 to France, beat Spain 26-14 and drew 12-12 with England on Saturday. They were relegated in the Challenge Cup where they lost 12-7 to Argentina, sending them down to the classification stage for position 13 and 14 where they fell 15-7 Russia.
The East Africans looked out of sorts against the Russians in the last match of the outing with the Europeans dominating possession and territory in the opening stages of the match.
Their efforts bore fruit when Yuri Gostyuzhev burst through the Kenyan defence to land at the corner for a unconverted try and a 5-0 lead.
Shujaa tried to rally with Dennis Ombachi and Billy Odhiambo but were hit by a sucker punch of try by the Russians when Alexy Kapalin touched down at the corner for a 10-0 lead at the interval.
On resumption, substitute Darwin Mukidza beat two Russian defenders and offloaded the ball to Eden Agero who in turn fed the ball to Sammy Oliech, who crossed the line. Oliech converted his own try to bring Kenya to within three points of the Russians at 10-7.
The Russians regrouped and put the icing on the cake when Vladislav Lazarenko powered his way to the line following a good break by German Davydov.
In the Challenge Cup trophy, Kenya exhibited a woeful performance against the Argentines. Kenya had started the match well with skipper Andrew Amonde’s blistering run but his attempted pass was intercepted by an Argentine defender.
Bush Mwale broke through later but his pass to Nelson Oyoo was adjudged to have gone forward by referee Pierre Brousset.
Loutaro Valez opened the scores for Argentina seconds soon after Eden Agero missed a tackle. At the re-start, Ombachi plucked the ball from the air but Kenya were penalised for holding on as Argentina led 5-0 at the interval.
Matters went from bad to worse for Kenya when Augustine Lugonzo was sent to the sin bin for tackling Gaston Revol mid air.
They dug deep and Nelson Oyoo leveled matters for Kenya with an unconverted try.
Revol was to turn hero for Argentina as he placed a grubber kick over the advancing Kenyan defence to score and convert a try.
With 45 seconds left, Kenya had a chance to hit back after being awarded a penalty but lost possession after a forward pass.
Argentina won the ensuing scrum down and kicked the ball out for their 25th win over Kenya.