The Kenya National Women’s Rugby Sevens team, the Kenya Lionesses, registered a decisive 17-5 victory over Belgium in their opening match of the second leg of the Challenger Series in Cape Town, South Africa, played on Friday, March 7, 2025.

Captain Grace Okullo was the standout performer, scoring a hat-trick. She opened the scoring just minutes into the game with an unconverted try, giving Kenya an early 5-0 lead. Okullo then added a second try, extending Kenya’s advantage to 10-0 before completing her hat-trick with another try, pushing the score to 17-0 at halftime.

In the second half, Belgium attempted to cut the deficit with an unconverted try, bringing the score to 17-5. However, the Kenya Lionesses held on to their lead until the final whistle, securing their first victory of the tournament.

The Kenya Lionesses are set to face Uganda in their second group phase match at 8:36 PM EAT.

This is the second round of the Challenger Series, which continues in Cape Town before the top eight men’s and women’s teams advance to the final tournament in Krakow, Poland, on April 11-12.

From there, the four teams with the highest cumulative points from the three rounds will earn a spot in the HSBC SVNS Play-Off in Los Angeles on May 3-4, where they will compete against the bottom four ranked teams from the HSBC SVNS 2025 in a high-stakes promotion and relegation battle.

The top four teams from this showdown will secure coveted places in the global HSBC SVNS circuit.

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