Malaga 7s: Rusty Shujaa lose opening game against Canada

A rusty-looking Shujaa were made to pay for their schoolboy mistakes as Canada condemned them to a 17-19 losing start in their opening Pool D match played on Friday afternoon at the inaugural HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series Malaga 7s tournament.

With around thirty seconds to go before the hooter sounded, and trailing by only two points, Kenya had a golden opportunity to try and force something out of the game when the Canadians handed them back easy possession but from the lineout, Johnstone Olindi's throw was surprisingly not straight as the ball went back to Canada who kicked the ball out of play to seal the comeback victory.

Everything had started well for Shujaa in the game as the returning Vincent Onyala gave the team an early 5-0 lead inside the first minute after cleverly spotting some space on the outside when the Canadians overly committed to stopping Herman Humwa who had made a good carry.

However, that lead was quickly wiped off by the time the two teams got to the halftime break as tries from Cooper Coats, Josiah Morra and Alex Russel saw the team race to a 5-19 lead at the interval following two successful conversion attempts and one missed.

The Canadians taking advantage at a time when Shujaa were reduced to six men following Nelson Oyoo’s yellow card for a high tackle.

The halftime team talk appeared to have settled some early nerves for Shujaa as the team scored two well-executed tries in the second half that saw Onyala land his brace in the match and Oyoo score to cut down the lead to only two points.

However, their spirited fight were all outdone in the dying minutes as Olindi’s poor throw denied the team any chance of fighting back late on in the match as Canada got away with the win.

The team will now have to turn their focus to Wales who they face in the second encounter.

The match kicks off at 1806EAT.