Kenya Lionesses seal Hong Kong 7s Cup quarters slot

The Kenya Lionesses rugby team sealed their place in the Hong Kong Cup quarter finals following two wins in two of their opening games at the competition.

The Lionesses reached the cup quarters with a game to spare against the mighty South Africans in their last pool play of the day at the Women’s Sevens World Series qualifiers in Hong Kong.

The Kenyan ladies kicked off their HSBC Women’s Sevens World Series qualifiers with a Pool A win 17-5 win over lowly rated Papua New Guinea at 5.30am on Thursday.

In their second match, the Lionesses thumped Mexico 42-0 to punch their last 8 ticket at the competition.

In the second game Mexicans  held their  heads high up own for all of three minutes until Janet Okello followed through on her kick to land a converted try for a 7-0 lead.

This gave the chance for Kenyans to strike and open up the floodgates of tries as they added two converted tries from Philadelphia Olando and Sheila Chajira to take a 21-0 lead into the intervals.

Soon after the break Mexico showed no signs of attacking and offered shabby opposition after the restart, and soon they were punished after losing possession in the middle of the field as the Kenyans forced a turnover that eventually saw Doreen Remour go over the whitewash.

Janet Okello who was having an amazing tournament converted her fourth successful conversion of the tournament for a 28-0 lead.

Philadelphia Olando and her Deputy Sheila Chajira led from the front with each earning their braces to seal the much needed win.

The team had earlier begun their campaign with a 17-5 win over Papua New Guinea in Hong Kong on Thursday morning.

Janet Okello, Celestine Masinde and Sheila Chajira all scored converted tries by Okello as the Kenyan ladies took a 21-0 lead after the buzzer.

Masinde and Chajira went over the whitewash for the second time, handing the Kevin Wambua coached side a deservingly win.

Earlier, the team had beaten Papua New Guinea 17-5 in their first pool A opener.

Papua New Guinea scored unconverted try after the break but were soon penalised for a dangerous tackle and went down to six players.

A tactical change to bring on Captain Philadelphia Olando after the break saw them score two tries from Remour and Olando secured the result for Kevin Bling’s charges.

The last game against continental winners South Africa at 11:00am will be a key determinant who tops Pool A ahead of tomorrow’s Cup quarterfinals.

The Lionesses reached the cup quarterfinal during last year’s qualifiers, failing to secure a core status for the 2018/19 season HSBC sevens series.

However, they reached reached the last eight at the 2017 Women’s Sevens World Series Qualifiers in Hong Kong thus booking a spot for the 2018 Commonwealth Games