Shujaa beat South Africa to reach ninth place semis at Canada 7s

Kenya Sevens continued to flip-flop at the 2022/23 World Rugby Sevens Series where they will now meet Spain in the semi-final for ninth place at Canada Sevens on Sunday.

After flopping at the preliminary round, losing to Fiji, Great Britain and Uruguay, Shujaa finally claimed their first victory stunning South Africa 17-12 in the ninth place quarter-final.

Shujaa overturned Blitzbokke’s 12-5 lead at the break to win with tries from George Ooro, Brian Tanga and John Okoth as Anthony Omondi managed a conversion.

Siviwe Soyizwapi drilled down a brace of tries as Ricardo Duarttee converted one to give Blitzbokke a 12-0 lead only for Ooro’s try to put Shujaa back in contention before the break.

Then Tanga and Okoth would land before Omondi converted one to hand Kenya victory and subject South Africa to their worst performance this season that has continued to produce upsets.

Kenya will take on Spain at 9.06pm on Sunday with Samoa, winners of Cape Town Sevens, having met Chile in the other ninth place semi-final at 8.44pm.

Day two on Sunday took its toll on the top teams. South Africa, Fiji and New Zealand, all in the top four in the world, failed to reach the Cup semi-finals.

South Africa were knocked out in the pool stage for the first time this season as Kenya piled more misery on them, beating them in ninth place quarter-final.

The Blitzbokke had not experienced this situation since the end of the 2022 season in Toulouse in May, then Los Angeles in August.

Third in the standings, South Africa will now have to fight for 13th place where they meet Canada in the semi-final.

Hamilton Sevens champions Argentina beat Fiji 19-14 in the dying moments of their Cup quarter-final thanks to a brace from the impressive Marcos Moneta. They will play their semi-final against Ireland.

France proved that they have what it takes to compete with the world's top four by beating Great Britain 15-7 in a well-controlled second half.

In 2019, after a disappointing tournament in Las Vegas, where they had finished at the bottom of the standings, Les Bleus finished with a silver medal around their neck a week later, in Vancouver.

They will not have New Zealand in their way as they were eliminated from the Cup race by Australia 17-7, a first for this season. 

Kenya lost to Fiji and Great Britain 31-12 and 26-12 respectively before stunningly going down to Uruguay 21-19 in their Pool “C” outing to drop to ninth place quarter-final.

"We have been losing some matches by small margins. When l came in, l knew it would be a struggle because we're playing against teams that have a good development system.

"Kenyan flair has speed, but other teams have that, too. We have to be technically efficient," said Kenya Sevens head coach Damian McGrath after the pool matches.