Wobbly Kenya limps out of Paris with one point

The national rugby sevens team Shujaa bowed out of the Paris Sevens tournament in France a dejected lot with only one win in five games as they choked on Day 2 at the Stade Jean Bouin Stadium in France.

Kenya’s woes started early Sunday morning in the Challenge Trophy quarter final as they lost 12 – 7 to Argentina when an infringement by Augustine Lugonzo meant Shujaa would play with a man down for three minutes.

The loss meant Kenya dropped further in the pecking order to the third tier trophy where they would face Russia who lost to Canada in the other quarterfinal.

Three minutes into the 13th place semifinal and the scoreboard stood at 0 – 0 with no points forthcoming with neither side willing to be the early adventurer.

Another disheartening infringement by the Kenyans, a telling trend in their outing in France so far, gifted their opponents with the chance to score.

Derrick Mayar was adjudged guilty by the referee for a high tackle and was sent off for three minutes.

Russia’s Yury Gostyuzhev gave his side the lead as the Kenyan defense struggled with a man off the field. Soon after, Nelson Oyoo was penalized for failing to release the ball in the tackle and the Russians stretched their lead by five points with Alexey Kapalin darting over 30 meters for a 10 – 0 advantage at the interval.

Kenya struck back early in the second half after a patient build up with Sammy Oliech going over the white wash.

Oliech converted his own try to reduce the point gap to three. The Russians struck back with Vladislav Lazarenko comfortably touching down after a patient build up to put the match beyond reach by 15 – 7.

Kenya bagged a paltry one point in Paris as they rued their capitulation in France ahead of the final round in London, England in less than a weeks time.

-Bernard Ndong is reporting from Paris, France.