Shujaa cruise to main cup quarterfinals after perfect day one in Munich

The men’s national rugby 7s side, Shujaa, edged closer to conforming their place in the new HSBC SVNS promotion and relegation play-off competition set for Madrid on 31 May-2 June after they finished top of Pool C in the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger final round being played in Munich, Germany.

Having picked comfortable 28-12 and 33-5 wins over Japan and Portugal respectively in their opening two games, Shujaa showed they can also go the hard way as they had to claim a golden point 17-12 win over Chile in the final pool matchup to seal top spot.

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In the riveting end-to-end affair, Lucca Avelli managed to give the Chileans the lead after an impressive start with Tomas Salas converting for the full seven points.

Just towards the end of the first half, Shujaa managed to reduce the deficit to 5-7 with Nygel Amaitsa getting Kenya’s opening try that Anthony Omondi failed to convert.

A raft of clever play among the Kevin Wambua-coached boys then set up Vincent Onyala for a try that seemed set to hand Kenya the win after Brian Tanga successfully converted but a late try from Chile’s Federico Kennedy with four seconds left to play forced the game to extra time with the scores tied at 12-12.

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Shujaa elected to kick and that decision proved to be a masterstroke as they reclaimed Tanga’s kick with Chrisant Ojwang touching down for the winning try.

The result saw Kenya finish top on 9 points ahead of Chile who managed 7 points with Portugal and Japan finishing with 3 and 0 points respectively.

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More to follow...