“We are back to stay in the Series” these were the words of an excited Kenya Shujaa’s coach Kevin Wambua after the team shook off a slow start to beat Germany 33-15 at the Civitas Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, Spain.

The emphatic performance put no doubt in Kenya’s bounce back to the Series. Wambua was confident even after Chris Umeh opened the scoring for the Germans barely after one minute. His unconverted try only threw oil into the fire as Vincent Onyala raced over after fending off tackles. Anthony Odongo kicked the conversion for a 7-5.

Chrisant Ojwang was shown a yellow card and Germany used the numerical advantage to add a second try through Niklas Koch. The try came after Germany won a scrum inside Kenya’s 25. Felix Hufganel missed the conversion.

Ojwang paid back the yellow card favor by scoring a try that had Kenya narrowly lead 12-10 at half time. It was a lead they did not relinquish on resumption as John Okoth dived under the sticks and Odongo converted to stretch the lead 19-10.

Flicker of hope

Germany were unrelenting and put a flicker of hope in their chances for upsetting Kenya after Max Heid scored Germany’s third try. With the scores at 19-15 in Kenya’s favor, Shujaa emptied the tanks and increased the intensity.

George Ooro and Kevin Wekesa put the issue beyond doubt scoring one try each. Odongo slotted both conversions to set off a wild celebration by the Kenya traveling fans on the stand.

Earlier, USA defeated Samoa 40-19 to retain their core status while Uruguay edged out South American rivals Chile 12-10 to gain promotion.

In the women’s category, Africa will not have a core team after South Africa lost 0-22 to hosts Spain in the quarter final. Spain will be joined by China, the Challenger Series winners who beat Belgium 33-0 and Japan, 26-12 winners over Argentina. Brazil also retained their spot as a core team.

Results

Women: China 33 Belgium 0, Spain 22 South Africa 0, Japan 26 Argentina 12, Poland 7 Brazil 38.

Men: USA 40 Samoa 19, Germany 15 Kenya 33, Uruguay 12 Chile 10, Canada v Spain,