Woeful Kenya 7s lose again in Hong Kong

Awful ball handling, poor set-piece execution and sloppy defending punctuated Kenya's display as they crushed to 36-0 defeat by New Zealand in their second Pool “C” duel at Hong Kong Sevens on Saturday.

The All Blacks touched down six tries with Joseva Ravouvou and Regan Ware going for a brace each. Ravouvou’s feat gave the Dubai and Sydney Sevens winners a 12-0 lead at the break.

Then Kenya’s passing dipped as they lost possession easily on contact to gift Ware with two tries to stretch their lead to 24-0.

Poor reception on restart was also Kenya’s main undoing with All Blacks regaining possession to see Joe Webber and Scott Curry finish off in style.

It was Kenya's second defeat after they had earlier gone down 22-5 to Hong Kong Sevens defending champions Fiji on Friday on a day where New Zealand handed Australia a 40-19 thrashing.

Fiji went for their second consecutive win, beating Australia 31-12.

Kenya and Australia, who got relegated to the Challenge Trophy now meet at 11:35am on Saturday in a mere formality match for the two sides.

Wales, who are battling relegation alongside Kenya, stunned USA Sevens champions Mike Friday’s USA 21-19 to enhance their hopes of qualifying to the main Cup quarterfinals. Wales, who had in their first Pool “D” match lost 36-19 to England, were to meet Spain in their last duel on Saturday.

Victory for Wales will see them through to the main Cup quarterfinals and a break from Kenya whom they were tied on 18 points going into Hong Kong.

Wales are placed 13th while Kenya are 14th - one place above relegation.

Other continental representatives South Africa won their second consecutive duel, beating Scotland 26-10 in their Pool “A” outing.

South Africa, who are placed fourth in the Series must finish in top four at the end of the season so as to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics failure to which they will have to take part in the Africa qualifiers.