Rugby Africa Cup 24: Rugged Kenya Simbas book semis ticket despite unconvincing show against Senegal

The men’s national 15s rugby team, Kenya Simbas, just about got the job done in their opening match at the Rugby Africa Cup 2024 as they recorded a 36-17 victory over Senegal to book their slot in the semifinals of the continental tournament.

While they successfully accomplished the mission at hand, it was the manner in which the Jerome Paarwater-coached side went about their business that left a lot to desire from a team that was almost qualifying for the Rugby World Cup 2023 less than a year ago.

In the quarterfinal match staged at the Mandela National Stadium in Uganda on Saturday afternoon, Kenya’s display right from the word go when Derrick Ashihundu knocked on the ball after Senegal’s kickoff laid the foundation of the rugged display that was to come.

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Inside the opening three minutes, the Simbas then missed two lineouts and had a couple of handling errors that, luckily for them, went unpunished.

Were it not for the solo brilliance of Eugene Sifuna, Bryceson Adaka and Beldad Ogeta who bailed out the team with the five tries that secured the win, there was nothing much to write home about from the team’s performance that lacked a clear structure, lacked on set pieces and committed way too many infringements, especially in their scrummaging.

"I am just happy that this first game is done. The guys were a bit rusty in the first half where I think there was a lot of points that we could have scored. But we have not played for seven months and we did not even have a warmup match to prepare.

The good thing is we were fitter and smarter at some times than Senegal and in the second half you could see if we play according to our structure we will get better," Paarwater said.

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It was Senegal who got the scoreboard ticking when they converted a penalty but Sifuna wiped off their bright start after touching down from a rolling Kenyan maul, Timothy Omela converting for a 7-3 lead.

A determined Sifuna then bulldozed his way over the Senegalese tryline to bag his brace that extended the team’s lead to 12-3 following a missed conversion by Omela.

A moment of brilliance then came near the half-hour mark when Ogeta caught the ball from inside his half before breaking the lines with a mazy run that ended with a try under the posts following an almost similar try to Duhan van der Merwe's strike against England in 2023, bringing the scores to 19-3.

Senegal managed to reduce the deficit to 19-10 after being awarded a penalty try in the final minute of the first half with Thomas Okeyo shown a yellow card after being adjudged to have illegally stopped the maul.

In the second half, Adaka and Ogeta’s tries in between a Barry Robinson penalty got the job done with Senegal also managing one try that was not enough as Kenya won 36-17.

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