The Kenya Sevens team now risks relegation after dropping from 13th to 14th following a humiliating performance at the Vancouver sevens.
This is the third of six legs in the 2018/19 HSBC World Sevens Series that Kenya 7s failed to register a single win – after the opening Dubai 7s and Sydney 7s during the fourth leg. In the rest of the legs, Shujaa failed to even make it to the finals of the Challenge Cup.
Kenyan International, Frank Wanyama has urged the Union to stop politics as the team’s performance is at stake. Wanyama believes ending politics in the Kenya Rugby Union will help inspire the Paul Murunga coached charges to a better performance in their next outing of the HSBC Series in Hong Kong in April.
“For the good of the game it’s better we do away with the politics and put the game first because all the problems facing Shujaa started with politics,” Wanyama said as quoted by Citizen Digital.
“The contracts given to the players were not worth the effort that the players put in the field during the HSBC World Series,” he added.
“So I think they should not do away with the players since some are playing very well, they just need to add a few more experienced players to beef up the squad to better our performance in the next outings.”
Shujaa bowed out of the competition after they lost their final game 22-14 to relegation-threatened Japan in the 13th place semifinal. Kenya exited the Vancouver sevens tournament with a mere point having lost all their matches. All Shujaa could afford was a consolation try in their last match when Shaddon Singah Munoko, the Mean Machine captain, got his first try on the World Series.
They had lost all the three matches in the group stages. Shujaa was anticipated to have had a challenge in the group they were pooled in but it unlike them to lose all matches with huge margins. In their opening match, Shujaa lost 12-36 to Fiji and went ahead to lose against Samoa by 12-35. Kenya emulated a better performance against hosts Canada but their effort was not enough to win as they lost 21-36 to the hosts.
Having lost all their group matches, Shujaa dropped to the Challenge Cup where they were plotted against Australia. The Kenyan team had no chances in the match except a consolation try from Shaddon Munoko as they were thrashed 47-7.
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As Shujaa prepare for the Hong Kong 7s slated for 5th April, they know what is bound to happen should they keep up with the terrible performance. Paul Murunga’s men will be out to fight the relegation battle for Shujaa.
