Pain for Shujaa as they Fail to Secure Top Flight Promotion After Squandering Huge Advantage

Kenya Sevens will not be playing top flight rugby next season after painfully seeing USA claim what was to be their spot.

Shujaa failed to finish in the top eight after the third leg of the SVNS World Championship in Bordeaux, France on Sunday, a heartbreaking end to their campaign after staying in contention after the first two rounds in Hong Kong and Valladolid.

In Bordeaux, Kenya needed an inspired performance to seal their place as they had come in on 14 points, same as seventh-placed France, with ninth-placed Uruguay on six points while Germany and USA had five each.

However, tables turned painfully for Kenya as while France stormed all the way to the cup final while USA made it to the fifth-place playoff, Shujaa dropped to the 11th place playoff.

Kenya won only one match in Bordeaux, a 26-7 victory over Uruguay in the 11th place playoff on Sunday, which earned them just one extra point for a total of 15 at the conclusion of the SVNS World Championship.

Tries from Vincent Onyala, John Okoth, David Nyangige and Brian Tanga had sone if for Shujaa as they ended a difficult weekend with some hope but they needed Fiji to beat USA in the fifth-place playoff to earn promotion.

All seemed to be going according to plan when Fiji took a 14-0 lead at the break but everything changed in the second half when the Americans fought back to win 17-14. That saw USA claim the final promotion slot while relegating Shujaa to the second tier HSBC SVN 2 for a second successive season.

It was a sobering outcome for Kenya who have not been impressive in the three legs but kept hope alive by finishing seventh and then eighth in Hong Kong and Valladolid respectively.

In Bordeaux, Kenya had a tough run, starting with a 31-12 loss to Fiji, followed by a 26-5 defeat to South Africa, before ending group stage action with a 14-5 loss to Great Britain.

That saw them drop to the ninth-place playoff semi-final where they faced the Britons again but they were handed another defeat, this time losing 7-5.

That left them in a spot of bother as far as top flight promotion was concerned as they needed to beat Uruguay in the 11th place playoff while hoping that Fiji do them a huge favour which did not happen.