Kenya's reign as Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Cup champions came to a halt on Tuesday when they lost 20-19 to Uganda in Tunis. It was a painful defeat for Kenya, who twice came from behind to lead only to falter again towards the end of the match.

The result means that they must beat hosts Tunisia if they harbour ambitions of qualifying for the Rugby World Cup in England in 2015.

Kenya began the match well and dominated the opening exchanges, taking the lead through burly forward Oscar Ouma, who touched down but Eden Agero missed the conversion for a 5-0 lead. Vincent Mose extended Kenya's lead to 8-0 with a penalty in the 18th minute. However, Uganda came back roaring in the remainder of the half with their forwards out-muscling the Kenyan side at the breakdown and collisions. Matthew Ochwo barged over the line with Anthony Kinene kicking over the conversion to trail 8-7 at interval.

Uganda continued with their resurgence in the second half and George Scott Oluoch scored Uganda's second try from maul to give his side 12-7 lead Mose kept Kenya in touch with another penalty to reduce the margin to 12-11 and kicked his third penalty of the match to widen the margin to 14-12. Brian Odongo of Uganda then split the Kenya defence to crash over the line and give Uganda a 17-14 lead with 15 minutes remaining.

Kenya re-grouped and piled on the pressure on rivals and their efforts bore fruit when Lawrence Buyachi touched down for an unconverted try and a 19-17 Uganda launched one last attack in the closing stages of the match, mauling and recycling the ball to good effect and were given a penalty after Kenya were deemed to have infringement at the ruck. Kinene made no mistake, drilling home the penalty.