Kenya men’s national rugby side Shujaa made it three consecutive defeats in the ongoing Toulouse 7s circuit as they were walloped 33-7 by Canada in the last Pool A game staged at the Stade Ernest-Wallon Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The result means that Canada have booked their place in the main cup quarter-finals against Australia while Kenya – ranked 13th in the HSBC Sevens standings – have to look no further than playing in the relegation playoffs.
It was the second placed team in Pool A that got off to a bright start, and with their dominant possession, scored the opening try of the game through Max Stewart. The 21 year old capitalized on a sleeping Kenyan defense to make a move off the scrum and powered his way to the right channel, taking the score 5-0. Kenya responded three minutes later in the ensuing possession through Daniel Taabu, as showed his pace and skill, touching down in between the sticks and with a conversion that saw Kenya take its first lead of the game 7-5.
Canada would then extend their lead immediately after when Thomas Isherwood finished off a darting run to see Canada – live pool leaders- lead 12-7 at the half. There was no stopping the Canadian team in the second half as David Richard toe-poked his ball past Brian Tanga to a converted score, and with their evident pace, skill and power, surged through to another try scored by Matt Oworu.
The rampage was not over as Canada made another sweeping move on the right flank, and soon delivered the ball to Josiah Morra – who secured Canada’s huge win that will improve their points tally and potentially see them usurp Kenya in the men’s standings. Canada began the series in 14th position with 24 points and after stumbling to New Zealand in the opening game, breezed past Uruguay 28-0 to set up a top two position in the pool. Kenya will now look at attacking the relegation playoffs that will be determined in the next leg in London .
