Kenya Lionesses Rugby World Cup hopes quashed

The national women rugby 15’s team saw its dream of playing in next year’s Rugby World Cup ended following Wednesday’s playoff loss to Colombia  at the Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi.

With the victory, Colombia thus advanced to the final qualifying repechage tournament set for January 2022 in Dubai, where four nations will battle for the sole remaining slot to the World Cup Finals.

Coach Felix Oloo’s charges scored two tries and converted one plus a penalty against Colombia’s two unconverted tries plus two penalties.

The visitors led 11-0 in the first 30 minutes with two penalties plus an unconverted try but Leah Wambui scored Kenya’s first try after a quick interchange with Philadelphia Orlando’s Grace Adhiambo who converted for 7-11 at halftime.

Kenya took the lead after a penalty kick by Grace Adhiambo plus a corner post try by another Olympian Janet Okello with Adhiambo missing the extras to give the host a 15-11 lead.

Colombia leapfrogged to the lead as they landed a corner post try, conversion sailing away to make it 16-15 for the visitors.

The Southern America team qualifies to World Cup repechage to be played in January 2022 in Dubai.

They will face Oceania’s representatives Samoa as well as Europe’s and Asian’s representatives.