Kenya Lionesses’ dream of featuring in the 2019/2020 HSBC women’s sevens series went up in smoke at the Hong Kong Stadium losing 17-5 to Brazil in the cup semi-finals.
Into the cup semis, both teams were unbeaten having managed four wins each on their way to the semis but it was the former women’s series core team that took the first strike to break with a 10-5 lead at half time to return to upset Lionesses with their unanswered third try for the win.
Winger Janet Okello caught the Brazilians without a sweeper to capitalise on her own kick to level the scores for Lionesses lone unconverted try in the match in the fifth minute.
Kenya would later match up Brazil’s physical show in the sixth minute but Brazil’s winger Dos Santos Silva created own space to feed off a loop to score her second unconverted try to go five points ahead of Lionesses.
Second half witnessed patience in Brazil’s attack, maintaining their play continuity to force errors in Lionesses half prompting the centre referee to send Cynthia Camilla out for two minutes for a high tackle infringement two minutes after the restart.
Down to six players in the field, Lionesses failed to contain a Brazilian line out caught by Gonzalez Costa who charged at the posts to leap over for their third and final try boosted by an extra two-pointer off a conversion to mark the end of Lionesses run.
Against Argentina in the repeat cup quarterfinals, it took Lionesses claws for a three-try and a conversion comeback to shut the Pumas 17-15 to maintain status against the Pumas having beaten them 17-12 in last seasons quarter-finals at the same venue.
Argentina led 10-0 courtesy of tries by Josefina Padellaro and Maria Moreno but a 31km/hr speed clocking Janet Okello put them to a speed test that ended with a 80m gain to give a Kenya’s first try to reduce gap to 10-5.
– ALEX NJUE
