Kenya Sevens in danger of relegation
Alvin Otieno of Kenya (left) complains that Akuila Rokolisoa of New Zealand grabbed him around the throat on day two of the World Rugby Sevens series at Allianz Stadium in Sydney on January 28, 2023.
What you need to know:
- Kenya's qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics also looks tight with South Africa having dropped in the standings from third place to seventh place with 89 points after collecting three points in Canada, their worst ever outing in years.
- The 15th placed core team based in accumulated Series points following the 10th round in Toulouse will be relegated.
Kenya Sevens dropped one place once again to 13th in the 2022/2023 World Rugby Sevens Series after finishing 10th at Canada Sevens on Sunday.
Shujaa lost to Cape Town Sevens champions Samoa 35-17 in the ninth place final to collect sevens points from Vancouver for their total tally of 29 points.
Kenya found themselves at the backfoot trailing 28-0 at the break.
Paul Scanlan landed a brace of tries with Neueli Leitufia and Faafoi Falaniko adding a try each. Falaniko converted twice with Leitufia and Scanlan added the other extras.
Daniel Taabu converted Brian Tanga's try to reduce the deficit at 28-7 on resumption, but Vaovafa Afa Sua landed as Paul Eti Slater converted to stretch Samoa's lead to 35-7.
Billy "The Kid" Odhiambo and Dennis Abukuse scored a try each for Kenya but all was in vain.
Hamilton Sevens champions Argéntina Sevens Pumas became the only other team in the Series to win two legs after New Zealand All Blacks when they handed France 33-21 defeat in the thrilling final at the BC Place.
Australia, the Hong Kong Sevens champions, settled for bronze after downing Dubai Sevens silver medallists Ireland 20-5 in the play-off for third place as New Zealand, winners in Sydney and Los Angeles, finished fifth after beating United States of America 50-7 in the fifth place final.
The All Blacks stayed at the top of the standings with an improved tally of 120 points after collecting 13 points from Canada.
The Pumas are second with 108 points after collecting 22 points from their victory in Canada, while France earned 19 points for their tally of 95 to go third.
Fiji collected 10 points to stay fourth in the Series with 94 points.
Kenya now must pull something magical in the next three legs of the series in Hong Kong, Singapore and Toulouse if they are to avoid the relegation play-offs.
Shujaa has finished last in the previous leg in Los Angeles to get one point that saw them drop one place to 12th.
Kenya's qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics also looks tight with South Africa having dropped in the standings from third place to seventh place with 89 points after collecting three points in Canada, their worst ever outing in years.
The 15th placed core team based in accumulated Series points following the 10th round in Toulouse will be relegated.
The 12th, 13th and 14th placed teams at the end of Toulouse will enter a four-team relegation play-off together with the Challenger Series 2023 winners at the 12th and final round of the Series in London.
The relegation play-off will be on round-robin basis with the top two teams then playing in the final.
The winner will become the 12th core team in the 2023/2024 Series, while the other three teams will enter their respective Regional Sevens Challenger Series.
The Challenger Series will continue to provide a pathway for teams to qualify for the World Rugby Sevens Series.
Subsequently, the top four teams after the final leg of the Series in London will automatically qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
If South Africa does finish in top four like the previous years when they made it to the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics automatically then they will have to qualify through the Africa qualifier that will now be quite competitive.
