Shujaa finish seventh at Cape Town Sevens

Kenya Sevens capped off an impressive Cape Town Sevens outing with a seventh place finish after hammering Great Britain 33-17 in the seventh place playoffs yesterday.

This is an improvement for Shujaa who finished 10th last week in Dubai Sevens.

Kenya finished second in Group B after losing to Spain and edging out Australia.

The Cape Town Sevens introduces a new competition format to enhance player welfare. The tournament features four pools of three teams each, with pool winners advancing directly to the semifinals.

Teams finishing second and third will contest placement matches for fifth to eighth and ninth to 12th positions, respectively.

That pitted Kenya against Argentina in the fifth-place semis which they lost 24-14.

The defeat relegated them to seventh place final which they faced Great Britain.

In the match, George Ooro gave Kenya the perfect start after scoring in the opening minute, a try that Nygel Amaitsa converted for a 7-0 lead.

Patrick Odongo followed suit with two quick tries under a minute, tries that were not converted but gave Shujaa a 17-0 lead after four minutes.

Shujaa co-captain Samwel Asati made it 22-0 with another unconverted try before Sunni Jardine cut the gap to 22-5 at the break with a late try before half time.

In the final half, Matt Davidson went over for the British second try that he converted to cut the lead to 22-12.

Sensing danger, Amaitsa stretched the Kenyan scores to 27-12 before the British outfit hit again through Luke Mehson for 27-17.

Amaitsa capped off a good run for Kenya for 33-17. On Saturday, Kenya Sevens registered mixed show after blowing hot and cold.

Shujaa came from 12-0 down to stun Australia 19-12 and kick off their Group B campaign on the front foot. However, they lost to Spain 14-7 after wasting many chances of taking the lead.

Shujaa, who are in Group B alongside the Australia and Dubai Sevens silver medallists Spain, needed to win their opening two match to qualify for the semifinals.

Kenya will now pick eight points in South Africa.