The national sevens team, Shujaa, enhanced their survival prospects in the World Rugby Sevens Series when they humiliated Tonga 38-26 in their second match of their do-or-die playoff campaign at the London Sevens on Saturday evening.
The homeboys drew first blood via Kevin Wekesa who jumped over the white line in the opening stages of the match to grant Kenya their first try, the resultant penalty which was converted by Tony Omondi to make it 7-0.
Wekesa was on the scoresheet soon after, following some fine work from Alvin ‘Buffa’ Otieno, scoring his second try to make it 12-0.
It was fast turning out to be a one-sided encounter as Brian Tanga scored the third try of the day to make it 19-0 before Tonga found a way back in the game via a converted try to make it 19-7.
The job's not yet done…
But…
One word for this man… pic.twitter.com/6wKuLqZDdQ
— Shujaa (@KenyaSevens) May 20, 2023
However, Wekesa had something else to say before the stroke of halftime, showing up with another try, which was converted by Omondi to make it 26-7.
The Kenyans continued from where they had left off, captain Nelson Oyoo scoring Kenya’s fifth try to make it 31-7.
Tonga briefly mounted a stiff resistance on resumption in the second half, scoring an early try to make it 26-12 but it wasn’t long before Edmond Anya widened the deficit with another try.
Their opponents were nonetheless not ready to go down fighting, scoring two tries to leave the game finely poised at 38-26.
With the win, Kenya will be buoyant ahead of the final group phase tie against Uruguay on Sunday.
Shujaa began their campaign with a 24-19 win over Canada on Saturday morning.
