Kenya Lionesses face Uganda in Africa Cup semis

Kenya Lionesses will be on a revenge mission as they seek to keep alive their hopes of punching automatic ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics when they face neighbours Uganda in the second semi-final at the Rugby Africa Women’s Sevens in Monastir, Tunisia, on Sunday.

Coach Dennis Mwanja’s charges sent a strong warning to opponents the first day after topping Pool “B” by demolishing Zambia 27-0, Ghana 41-0 and Madagascar.

Uganda finished second in Pool “A” behind South Africa after losing 19-0 against the defending champions and then defeated Tunisia 12-5 and Zimbabwe 22-0.

The Lionesses and Uganda’s Lady Cranes met at the group phase in the last edition also in Tunisia where Mwanja’s charges lost 10-7 on their way to finishing in their worst position since 2014.

In their first match, Kenya destroyed Zambia with a brace of tries from Stella Wafula and Japan-based Janet Okello, while Diana Omosso contributed a try. Captain Grace Okulu successfully made a conversion.

The Lionesses were even more ruthless against Ghana, with Sharon Auma crossing the line three times as Wafula, Okello and Terry Ayesa notched a try apiece. Kenya met both Ghana and Zambia in the last edition, defeating them 20-0 and 12-5 in classification matches, respectively.

South Africa, who won the continental qualifiers in 2015 and 2019 by thrashing Kenya 31-5 and 15-14 in the final, did not participate in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, because the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) did not permit qualification via the African qualifiers route.

As the second-placed team in the African qualifiers, Kenya benefited from that rule to advance to the Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Tokyo, Japan, respectively.

However, things are different now after South Africa changed the rule in November 2019.

The rule change came late after World Rugby had already named Kenya as Africa's representative in Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

 South Africa topped their group after seeing off Zimbabwe 26-5, Uganda 19-0 and Tunisia 27-7 on Saturday.

The winner of this year’s Africa title will qualify automatically to join Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and the USA at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

The second and third placed sides will get the last chance to qualify for the quadrennial games via the 2024 Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Monaco in June.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s 15-a-side team also known as the Lionesses, kicked off the third-tier of the inaugural women's international rugby union (WXV3) with a 37-0 loss at the hands of reigning European champions Spain in Dubai on Saturday.

Coach Paul Murunga’s side will also face Kazakhstan (October 20) and Colombia (October 27). WXV3 started on October 13 with Fiji outwitting Colombia 62-13 and will end on October 28, with the winner gaining promotion to WXV2.  

Fixtures

5th place semi-final 1 – Tunisia v Ghana (12.00pm)

5th place semi-final 2 - Madagascar v Zimbabwe (12.22pm)

Cup semi-final 1 – South Africa v Zambia (12.44pm)

Cup semi-final 2 – Kenya v Uganda (13.06pm)

Bronze Final – (3.35pm)

Cup Final – (4.12pm)