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Kenya Sevens lift the Challenge Trophy after beating Australia at the HSBC Wellington Sevens on 29 January, 2017, round three of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series 2016-17 season. PHOTO | MICHAEL LEE | WORLD RUGBY
Kenya Sevens finally broke the duck when they defeated Australia 19-17 in a dramatic final to lift the Challenge Trophy at Wellington Sevens on Sunday.
The victory saw Kenya collect eight points but stayed 10th in the World Rugby Sevens Series with 25 points.
Australia and Argentina also have 25 points each but are ahead of Kenya on better aggregate in seventh and eighth places respectively.
Argentina, who defeated Kenya 17-12 in the pool stages, finished fifth in Wellington after edging out defending champions New Zealand 17-12 for the fifth place play-off.
South Africa claimed their second Cup victory this season, beating Fiji 26-5 in a pulsating final as Scotland snatched bronze, beating Canada 28-22 in the bronze play-off.
South Africa stretched their World Rugby Series lead to 63 points followed by Fiji 51 and England 49.
Kenya, who had dismantled Russia 24-5 and Mike Friday’s United States 19-12 in the quarterfinals and semi-finals respectively of the Challenge Trophy, took a 14-0 lead against the Aussies.
Billy “The Kid” Odhiambo charged through before offloading to Samuel Oliech for the first try of the match, which laid the stage for yet another try when Odhiambo dashed across the line.
Instead of scoring, Odhiambo passed the ball to the all-time leading try scorer Collins Injera who touched down to stretch his tally to 237 tries.
Henry Hutchison revived the Aussies hopes with a try at the stroke of half-time under the posts to trail 7-14 at half time. It was their first possession of the half and they scored relatively easily.
Then the wonder kid Odhiambo would follow up his delicate kick down the wing to just get his grip on the ball for his sixth try at Wellington Sevens.
Odhiambo emerged the best performer at Wellington according to performance tracker on 134, beating England’s Dan Norton 127 and Seabelo Senatla from South Africa on 121. Odhiambo had with 32 tackles, 20 breaks, 14 offloads and 68 carries.
Australia ploughed back with Dylan Pietsch and Mick Adams breaking Kenyan lines to score but the missed conversions handed Kenya the victory.
”We wanted to keep our focus, Australia are a quality side. We stood up and got the win. Today was very windy, the toughest I have had here since my debut in 2006," said Injera.
The silky Daniel Sikuta weaved through a tackle to open the scoring against USA but Perry Baker hit back for Friday’s side to take the lead 7-5. Odhiambo was simply in a class of his own to score a brace for his 60th try of the Series and despite Injera being-sinned, Kenya held on to win even Michael Hughes try.
Oliech, Odhiambo and William Ambaka landed to put Kenya ahead 17-0 at the break against the Russians. Sikuta finished it off in the second half.
Kenya Sevens lifts Challenge Trophy at Wellington
