Shujaa miss out on main cup final after set-piece schooling against Hong Kong China

Hong Kong China gave the Kenya men’s national 7s rugby team some proper set-piece schooling as they recorded a comfortable 21-14 win to knock Shujaa out of main cup contention in the Uruguay Challenger Series 2024.

In the match where Kenya was seeking to make a second appearance in the main cup final following their exploits in Dubai where they went on to lift the trophy, Hong Kong ensured that was not the case as they put on a show with their impressive lineouts that led to Shujaa’s downfall.

It all started inside the opening minute with the first lineout that was perfectly executed as Cado Lee sliced through the Kenyan defense to give his side a 7-0 lead after a successful conversion by Hugo Stiles.

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The second try then resulted from another lineout that ended up with Lee squeezing his way to the try line as Stiles nailed the conversion again to extend Hong Kong’s lead to 14-0.

After struggling to get their hands on the ball, the Kevin Wambua-coached side managed to get some lifeline after some timely offloading from Lameck Ambetsa and Kevin Wekesa allowed Vincent Onyala to pull clear towards the try line.

The Shujaa co-captain, in unselfish fashion, then passed the ball back to Ambetsa who touched down his first try for Shujaa with Omondi nailing the conversion to reduce the deficit to 14-7.

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Just before the halftime break though, Kenya’s defensive woes in the lineout were again brutally exposed as Callum McCullough rose highest to claim the ball before touching down for the third converted try as Hong Kong led 21-7 at the break.

The second half saw Ben Salem Adoyo pulling one back for Kenya in the dying moments with a converted try that brought the game to 21-14 but Shujaa shot themselves in the foot after the full-time hooter had sounded as they knocked on the ball to hand the opponents the win.

Hong Kong China will now face Uruguay in the main cup final as Shujaa drop to the 3/4th place playoff where they will meet Chile. Uruguay beat Chile 10-7 in the first semifinal.

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Shujaa results in Uruguay

Pool A

Kenya 19-12 Portugal

Kenya 0-17 Georgia

Kenya 17-14 Tonga

Kenya 7-5 Uganda (QF)

Kenya 14-21 Hong Kong China (SF)