Defeat to France sees Kenya 7s close the season at 13th

Kenya 7s lost 26-21 to France to bow out of the Paris 7s in the 5th place semifinals on Sunday at the French capital.

The defeat meant Kenya pick 10 points from the last leg of the 2019 HSBC World Sevens Series and finish 13th with 37 points. Andrew Amonde had a good weekend as he made the tournament’s dream team and become the first Kenyan player to do so in the 2019 series.

However, the Shujaa return home on Monday having achieved the weekend’s goal – to survive relegation; which they did on Saturday evening after qualifying for cup quaters.

Wales dropped to 14th with 31 points after dropping to 13th place semis while Japan bid farewell to the World Sevens Series after finishing 15th with 27 points on Sunday evening.

Japan could however be back on the World Series by the time they host the Tokyo 2020 Olympics 7s may they win next year’s qualifiers in Hong Kong.

Fiji won the Paris 7s beating New Zealand 35-24 in the cup final. They were also crowned the 2019 series champions after getting 186 points. Mike Friday’s USA finished second with 177 as New Zealand secured third place with 162.

France’s support was loud but it was not deterring Shujaa and Nelson Oyoo took matters into his own hands with a powerful solo-score, his second of the match.

On every stage of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series there’s Kenyan corner in the stands, the corner that’s packed with ardent fans bouncing with joy and Cyprian Kuto raced towards them for the first try of the second half to go 21-7 up.

He danced with his teammates after and it gave Les Bleus plenty to think about. Manoel Dall’igna ensured that it’s game-on with just a couple of minutes to play and Kenya were going needed to put a serious shift in defensively if they were going to hold out the hosts.

France set up a final play off a penalty, they went left to start with before moving right… still Kenya”s defensive wall held firm.

Les Bleus put wave after wave of pressure on and although they were repelled, Andrew Amonde received a yellow card and France had a final opportunity.

Kenya’s wall was finally broken and after Jean Pascal Barraque slotted a simple conversion to go to extra-time!

Manoel Dall’igna sent the fans in the stands WILD and it came after rescuing a set-piece move that had the potential to go wrong.

It didn’t, though and France won it 26-21.

–Material from World Rugby