Nairobi — Shujaa started their Sydney Sevens campaign on a wrong footing Friday morning after going down 31-5 to South Africa in their Pool C opener at the Allianz Stadium.

Shilton van Wyk dotted down a brace of tries for the Blitzbokke as they ran in five tries, three of them converted while Shujaa's consolation was off Kelvin Wekesa in the penultimate minute of the game.

Van Wyk dotted down in the second and sixth minutes for South Africa, both of which were converted by Ricardo Duarttee as they went 14-0 up.

Shaun Williams dotted down their third try with Duarttee dotting down as the South Africans went to the break with a healthy 21-0 lead.

In the second half, James Murphy went over the whitewash to add in five more points for South Africa, before Wekesa scored Kenya's first try in Australia in the 13th minute.

Any slight hope of an impossible comeback were thwarted after the buzzer when Siviwe Soyizwapi crossed over to add in the fifth try for the South Africans.

Shujaa's next match is at 2:06am early Saturday morning against Series leaders New Zealand, before they close off their group stage action against Uruguay at 7:27am.

The Kenyan boys who are yet to make any Cup quarter after four legs of the series have to win their last two games to make it into the top eight while a loss in any sees them drop to the Challenge Trophy.