Kenya “A” Edge Hong Kong In Tuesday Night Thriller

Aug 24 • General News, International • 1425 Views • Comments Off on Kenya “A” Edge Hong Kong In Tuesday Night Thriller

Trailing 10-11 at Half time, Kenya A picked themselves up, rallying to a 24-18 win over Hong Kong in an international friendly played under the Impala Club lights on Tuesday 23 August.
After a tentative start, the Dragons settled into a rhythm, Conor Hartley’s unconverted try putting them 5-0 up before Mike Agevi responded with a penalty for a 5-3 score.
The hosts would lose skipper Innocent Simiyu to injury midway through the first half, Samson Onsomu replacing him.
Jason Kjestrup would drill home two penalties to see Hong Kong go 11-3 up but the hosts stayed in the hunt, Cyprian Kuto setting up Patrice Agunda for the try, Agevi adding the two points for an 11-10 score at the break.
Onsomu would breach the Hong Kong defense in the middle of the park,racing clear to go over the chalk, Kelvin Masai converting for a 17-11 score before Kuto received the ball on the burst, ghosted past two Hong Kong defenders to touch down, Masai drilling home the ensuing conversion for a 24-11 score.
Hong Kong were still in it, chasing the game, piling on the pressure, Jack Parfitt landing a late try, too little too late for the visitors.

Wangila – Structure Won It for Us

Simbas Manager Simiyu Wangila termed Kenya “A”s victory over Hong Kong as a team effort. In a post-match interview with Kenya Rugby, Wangila said, “ We played as a team, and kept our structures, even under intense pressure from the visitors.”

“ What also helped was the fact that we had studied our opponents and kept our collective discipline, which enabled us avoid being drawn into their game plan. Everyone selected for this match played their hearts out and I thank the boys for the team effort,” he added.

Hong Kong Looking To Regroup

Hong Kong will be out to regroup after Tuesday night’s 18-24 loss to Kenya “A” in Nairobi.

Head Coach Leigh Jones said in a press interview with the South China Morning Post, “We controlled the first half,” he said. “We created two or three chances but didn’t finish them off. Liam Owens came on at fly-half and played very well and young Hugo Stiles at fullback showed the class he has.”

“The experiment of coming here and looking at guys under test pressure, we got a lot from it. “We looked like a team that hadn’t played together, coming off a summer break with the resulting rustiness and inaccuracies,” Jones said.

“It can be understandable but it isn’t acceptable. “Now we’ll regroup and look to improve some of our accuracy issues for the test,” Jones said.

“It was pretty much textbook in many ways to what we said pre-tour. If we slip off the tackles these guys have the pace and power to hurt us and that proved to be the case,” he added.