World Rugby 7s Challenger Series: Kenya Lionesses tame South Africa’s Women Boks

Kenya have won back-to-back legs at the 2025 World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series after stunning hosts South Africa 17-0 in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sunday.

The Lionesses, who reached the final with a come-from-behind 12-5 win against Colombia in the semi-final, floored the Women Boks with tries from Naomi Amuguni, Sharon Auma and Freshia Oduor, with Sinaida Nyachio making one successful conversion.

 Coach Dennis Mwanja’s side put up a strong performance both in attack and defence to be the only team to beat the South Africans over two weeks.

 The Lionesses defeated South Africa in the semi-final stage in the first tournament held on March 1-2 in Cape Town and the hosts were expected to come hard at Kenya, and they did, only that Kenya stood firm and forced the African champions into making unforced errors.

In the semi-final stage, the Lionesses, who won the first leg by defeating Argentina 17-12 in the final one week ago, mauled the South Americans with tries from Judith Okumu and Sharon Auma scored the second half.

Mwanja’s charges started the semi-final match on the wrong footing, trailing 0-5 at the break after conceding from Daniela Alzate.

However, Okumu tied the scores 5-5 after evading three tackles, including one in the try box in 10 minutes.

Auma put Kenya ahead 10-5 after three minutes later after she showed a clean pair of heels to the Colombian defence after catching them flat-foot on the right flank.

Nyachio successfully made the conversion. Good defence from Kenya ensured Kenya set up an all-African final against hosts South Africa who saw off Czech Republic 21-15 in the first final with three converted tries from Maria Tshiremba (two) and Nadine Roos. The Czechs also grabbed a hat-trick of tries through Veronika Bolfova, Julie Dolezilova and Tereza Bathova but did not convert any.

Kenya, South Africa, Argentina, Colombia, Thailand, Czech Republic, Poland and Uganda have now qualified for the final leg of the Challenger Series slated for April 11-12 in Krakow, Poland where top-four sides will meet bottom-four teams from the 2024-2025 World Rugby Women’s Series for four slots in 2025-2026 World Rugby Women’s Series.

Heading to Krakow, Kenya will be fancying their chances to make the best four teams, especially because they had never won a major global title before collecting two in Cape Town.