Catalogue of errors from Spanish doubleheader as Shujaa pick paltry nine points

When Daniel Taabu made a brilliant line break against hosts Spain as Shujaa silenced the home crowd with a golden-point try that secured a 9th place finish in the fourth HSBC World Sevens Series outing held in Seville, the beautiful piece of play put an end to what had been a chaotic and frustrating two outings for the men’s national 7s side in Spain.

Having managed 22 points in total after 8th and 6th place finishes in the opening two outings held in Dubai, the Innocent Simiyu coached side came out with only nine points from the Malaga and Seville 7s tournaments.

Malaga 7s

The first outing of the year 2022 and the third of the Series was one to forget for Shujaa.

Pooled alongside France, Wales and Canada, the team failed to make it out of the group stages as they were tossed and turned in the playoff matches where they ended up finishing last in the 15 team tournament following losses against Scotland and Japan of all teams in the placement matches.

Malaga 7s: Rusty Shujaa lose opening game against Canada

For the majority of the tournament, poor decision making and schoolboy errors culminated in the inconsistencies that resulted in the team picking only one point in Malaga.

Against Canada in the opening pool match, with the scores at 17-19 and thirty seconds left on the clock, Kenya had a golden opportunity to try and force something out of the game when the Canadians handed them back easy possession but from the ensuing lineout, Johnstone Olindi's throw was surprisingly not straight as the ball went back to Canada who kicked the ball out of play to seal the narrow victory.

The small errors would again stop Shujaa from forcing something in the second game against Wales as they were penalized for a knock-on with just 25 seconds to go when they were trailing 14-19 against Scotland.

The pressure moments became too much of an ask for the team through the whole team.

Seville 7s

In the subsequent outing that came just a week later, there were signs of improvement on the Malaga blowing but not quite at the level required. The team still failed to get out of the group stages after picking a heavy 42-0 loss against Australia and another 14-10 defeat against Scotland.

Dreadful Shujaa hammered by Australia as poor form persists in Seville 7s opener

A stroke of luck however ensured that the team would get a bye to the 9th place semifinal as Samoa had withdrawn from the two tournaments due to Covid-19 challenges.

Dogged performances against Germany and that thrilling extra-time win over Spain placated the lethargic displays that left a lot to be desired from the team.

In a year that is very key for the national side with the Commonwealth Games on the cards in July, qualification for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022 commencing in April and two teams also being relegated from the Series, head coach Simiyu should put his house in order before things go down quite fast as Spain proved that they can.