SAMSON ATEKA and agencies
1 December 2007
Nairobi — Samoa needed a try by Alafoti Fa'osiliva to beat Kenya 24-19 as the Emirates Airline Dubai Sevens kicked off the IRB Sevens circuit.
Kenya trailed 19-0 at half-time. However, they caused an upset in their second match, again coming from behind, this time recovering from 12-0 down against Wales to triumph 14-12 with tries from Peter Ocholla and Dennis Mwanja.
The match against Samoa was a dramatic comeback from 0-19 down for the Virgin Atlantic Airways-sponsored Kenya side that rallied to tie the game 19-19. Peter Ocholla had a chance to offload the ball to an overlap of two players, but squandered it and Samoa attacked and won with a suspect try by Fa'osiliva.
Wales and Kenya now have one win apiece. Wales had beaten the US 22-7 in their opening match, thanks to second half tries by Lee Williams (two) and Nick Wakely, after the hooter.
In pool D, South Africa kicked off the defence of the Emirates crown with two convincing victories - a 31-5 defeat of Canada and a 42-0 win against Tunisia. New Zealand, having beaten Scotland 41-5 in their opening match, ran in 10 tries, including doubles by Zar Lawrence, Solomon King and Lote Raikabula, to overpower the Arabian Gulf 64-0.
Scotland bounced back from their opening defeat to snatch a 17-12 victory over France with Ruaridh Jackson's try in the final play. The two sides have one win apiece, France having beaten Arabian Gulf 26-0 in their opener.
Samoa could not break the resolute Kenyan defence in the opening two minutes. Collins Injera broke through after one and a half minutes, but miscalculated a decisive pass to Naftaly Bondo on the outside.
Uale Mai opened the scores for Samoa in the second minute and Roger Warren converted for a 7-0 lead. It was not until in the fifth minute that Samoa crossed the Kenyan try line again. Alapsa Cordtz raced over after Samoa recycled the ball twice. Mai went over for his second after shaking off Bondo for Samoa to lead 19-0 at half time.
Kenya bounced back on the re-start with Collins Injera scoring after only 25 seconds. Innocent Simiyu converted as Samoa led 19-7, courtesy of some good spadework by Edwin Shimenga. He converted from a difficult angle to narrow the scores to 19-14 in Samoa 's favour.
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