Indisciplined Shujaa finish last in Hong Kong 7s after Uruguay defeat

The men’s national rugby sevens side Shujaa will want to quickly erase memories of the season opening 2023 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series outing held in Hong Kong as the team finished in last place following their 7-10 loss against Uruguay in the 13th place semifinal played on Sunday morning.

Initially having taken a 7-0 lead to the half time break, the Damian McGrath currently coached side saw a case of gross indiscipline cost his side the lead as Uruguay overturned the deficit to beat Kenya 7-10 at the referee’s full time whistle.

The turning point in the match came in the first half when Kabras Sugar’s Kevin Wekesa was shown two yellow cards in a span of a minute consequently resulting in a red card that gifted the Uruguayans a man advantage for the entire period of the second half which they used in handing Kenya a fifth consecutive defeat that saw the team end the first outing without any win.

The match had gotten off to a positive start as Wekesa, before turning villain, had given Kenya the lead after providing great support play to Billy Odhiambo who had made a great line break before playing a short line to his teammate who touched down with Anthony Omondi successfully converting.

Shortly after taking the lead, the team was handed a massive injury blow as Vincent Onyala was forced off with what looked like a bad knee injury before Wekesa’s red card saw the team suffer the consequences of indiscipline.

With a man advantage for the entire second period, the Uruguayans kept their cool and shuffled the Kenyans from side to side before eventually finding spaces on two separate occasssions which they used in touching down twice through Mateo Vinals and Bautista Basso. Despite missing the conversion attempts, it mattered little as they resolutely held on for the narrow win.