Shujaa relinquish Africa 7s title, but squeeze World Cup qualification

NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 24 – Shujaa relinquished their Africa 7s title on Sunday, but did just but enough to earn qualification to the Rugby Sevens World Cup after beating Zambia 19-12 in the third place play-off in Kampala.

Shujaa had dropped off the title race after losing to Uganda in the semi-finals, but they wrote off a few wrongs with the Zambia victory to earn their sixth qualification to the World Cup, set to be staged in South Africa in September.

Debutant Amon Wamalwa landed a brace of tries for Shujaa against Zambia while Augustine Lugonzo crossed over once and Tony Omondi slicing the posts for conversions in two of the three tries.

Innocent Simiyu’s charges had hoped to defend their title, but they saw the dreams crashed after losing 22-12 to Uganda in the semi-finals. They had earlier on suffered a shock 12-7 loss to Madagascar in their last pool match.

Shujaa had a perfect start to the tournament, beating Namibia 33-7 and Zimbabwe 24-19 in their first two pool matches. They had earned a place in the pool stage after a 19-0 victory over Senegal in the seeding match.

Hosts Uganda won the tournament after thrashing Zimbabwe 28-0 in the final.

Simiyu and his technical bench will now have a lot to think about ahead of the World Cup, especially with the performance in the World Rugby Sevens series also not being to standard.

–Additional reporting from KRU