WI suffer narrow loss to Kenya

Mar 28, 2009 Sports

Claudius Butts

Rugby West Indies suffered a narrow 10-17 loss to Africa’s top team Kenya in a closely fought game of the IRB Hong Kong Sevens Series which opened on Thursday (Guyana time).
Kenya are currently ranked 6th in the series behind England, South Africa, New Zealand, Argentina and Fiji.
The West Indies threatened to create the first major upset of the 24-team tournament by scoring in the first few seconds of the game.

Luther Burrell broke through the centre to hand off to his captain Claudius Butts who outran the Kenyans to touch down near the posts, but Burrell failed to convert the try. The West Indies continued to dominate the run of play and went to the break with a 5-0 lead.

The Kenyans came back strongly in the second half taking advantage of defensive mistakes by the West Indies to put two quick tries on the board, converting one to go ahead 12-5 and then added another to lead 17-5.
The West Indies stayed in the game threatening to score on two occasions and with a minute to whistle Tom Healey broke away to register their second try to leave the final score at 10-17.
The West Indies take on USA in the first game tomorrow and Scotland later in the day confident that they can hold their own.
In other results:
France 17 – 5 Uruguay Pool A
Wales 14 – 5 Japan Pool B
Australia 33 – 5 Zimbabwe Pool C
Portugal 5 – 17 Tonga Pool D
Samoa 14 – 10 Canada Pool E
USA 17 – 19 Scotland Pool F
South Africa 29 – 7 Korea Pool A
England 54 – 0 China Pool B
New Zealand 59 – 0 Sri Lanka
Pool C
Argentina 28 – 0 Hong Kong
Pool D
Fiji 33 – 0 Chinese Taipei Pool E