Following a disappointing performance at the Hong Kong Sevens over the weekend, Shujaa have been placed in a tricky Pool 'C' alongside USA, England and Wales for the Singapore edition this weekend.
Paul Murunga's charges picked five points to move up to 13th on the log with 23 points, two ahead of Japan and three ahead of Wales as the fight for relegation rages on with the three tournaments remaining.
After Singapore, the tournament to the last of the phase, in London and Paris next month.
It was an underwhelming performance for Kenya, who for the seventh consecutive tournament failed, to make it to the main cup quarterfinals.
Kenya bagged a solitary win, beating Canada 19-0 in the Challenge Trophy quarterfinal after tries by stand-in skipper Jeff Oluoch, Andrew Amonde and Eden Agero, who added two conversions.
Kenya could, however, not turn up in the semifinals, losing 21-12 to Japan in an error-strewn performance.
Japan went first on the scoreboard after sending the ball wide to find Kazushi Hano, who side-stepped a defender to land his side’s first score with the conversion splitting the posts successfully.
Augustine Lugonzo narrowed the gap as he went through Japan’s defence off a scrum and dived over the whitewash for a 7-5 score at the breather. Japan landed two quick tries after the restart through Katsuyuki Sakai and Taisei Hayashi but both conversions went wide.
Off a breakdown, Bush Mwale’s switch pass to Vincent Onyala resulted in Shujaa’s second try and Daniel Taabu’s conversion brought the scores to 21-12. Shujaa made several visits to the opponents half but the Japanese defence was too strong.
Kenya lost to Fiji 22-5 in the opener, were humiliated 36-0 by New Zealand and lost to Australia 28-12 in the pool matches.
Stand-in skipper Jeffrey Oluoch bagged the DHL rugby impact player of the tournament for the weekend with 13 tackles, six breaks, seven offloads and 26 carries for a personal haul of 52 points.
Oluoch said there is room for improvement after failing to meet the target in Hong Kong.
"It's disappointing but there are positives learnt. Our work at the breakdown was good but we need to improve our defence in the wide channels and improve execution in attack,” said Oluoch.
Pools:
'A' Fiji, South Africa, Scotland, Canada
'B' France, Argentina, Australia 16th team
'C' USA, England, Kenya and Wales
'D' Samoa, New Zealand, Japan and Spain
