Shujaa knocked out of Hong Kong 7s main cup contention following Argentina defeat

The men's national 7s rugby team Shujaa will not play any part in fighting for the Hong Kong 7s main cup following their 26-7 defeat against Argentina on Saturday morning.

The defeat against the Argentines, their second group loss after going down 28-12 against Ireland in their opening match, meant that the Damian McGrath currently coached side have no mathematical chance of making it out of Group D as Argentina and Ireland are four points ahead with only one game remaining.

After a slow start on day one, Shujaa started the match in excited fashion and they took the lead following an exquisite move that was brilliantly finished by KCB ace Vincent Onyala.

It all started when the hard hitting Herman Humwa took matters in his own hands and went for the direct line before releasing a cute offload to Anthony Omondi whose quick thinking squared the ball to Onyala.

With time and space, Onyala, who opted to return to the sevens fold at the expense of the 15s, unleashed a devilish dummy on his marker that created open space for him which he greatly exploited to put Kenya 0-7 up following Daniel Taabu’s successful conversion.

Hit by the scoreline, the Argentines upped the ante in the game and managed to restore parity after Rodrigo Isgro’s try was well converted by Luciano Gonzalez.

With just seconds left before the half time break, Shujaa were reduced to six men following Willy Ambaka’s yellow card leaving Augistin Fraga to capitalize on the man advantage and acres of space as Argentina opted to go for the scrum that led to them taking a 14-7 half time lead following a converted try.

The spirited Shujaa tried to stage a comeback in the second half but the Argentines were always in control of the game, killing their momentum any chance they got as they stayed clinical themselves.

They ended up adding two more tries through Matia Osadczuk and Gonzalez to seal the 26-7 victory.

Shujaa will now face Canada at 0945EAT in their last group D match.

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