The men’s national rugby 7s side, Shujaa, were forced to settle for a tenth-place finish in the Perth 7s tournament marking the third outing of the HSBC SVNS Series 2025.
This is after they succumbed to a 12-19 defeat against New Zealand in a closely contested 9th place final played on Sunday morning at the HBF Park in Perth, Australia.
To get themselves into the playoff match, Shujaa had dispatched USA 26-21 in the 9th place semi while the All Blacks recorded a huge 42-5 win over Ireland in the other tie.
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In the match, it is the All Blacks who were first to get on the scoresheet with a couple of clever offloads setting Regan Ware through as he touched down near the corner, Andrew Knewstubb converting to give them a 0-7 lead.
It did not take long for Kenya to restore parity as Patrick Odongo’s quick thinking to pick the ball from the ruck and attack on the outside with his deadly pace gave the New Zealanders no chance as he touched down under the posts, giving Tony Omondi an easy time in converting to level the scores.
Kenya went ahead to take the lead after Omondi’s quick restart put Vincent Onyala in a prime position to strike which he did after fending off the All Blacks as Shujaa led 12-7 at halftime.
The second half never went to plan for Kenya as a couple of poor lineouts easily gifted possession back to New Zealand who scored two tries through Knewstubb and Dylan Collier to regain a 12-19 lead.
In the game’s last minutes, Floyd Wabwire almost forced the game into golden point as he raced onto a clever grabber by Onyala butfailed to connect just in time as Kenya lost.
Up next for Shujaa is the Vancouver 7s taking place in Canada from 21-23 February.
Shujaa results and fixtures (Perth 7s)
Kenya 14-29 New Zealand
Kenya 14-21 Fiji
Kenya 19-5 Uruguay
Kenya 26-21 USA (9th place semifinal)
Kenya 12-19 (9th place final)
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