Kenya Simbas threw away a five-point lead at halftime as they lost 60-24 in their opening match of the four-nation Stellenbosch Challenge against Namibia in South Africa at Markotter Stadium on Sunday.

Coach Paul Odera’s charges gave as much as they got in the end-to-end first half action before running out of ideas after Namibia came out guns blazing in the second half.

Kenya had no answers to Namibia’s lineouts, with their strength and speed too much for Simbas to handle.  

Simbas got their tries through Vincent Onyala (two) and Jacob Ojee (one), with Fijian-born Jone Kubu converting the tries as well as slotting a penalty.

Kubu took Kenya 14-12 up after converting tries from Ojee and Onyala. Kenya looked on course to cause an upset after Onyala landed the third try by slicing through the  Namibian defence for his second try of the match, which Kubu converted for 21-12.

However, Namibia mastered the trick of punishing Kenyans through lineouts by bulldozing their way to the tryline. Kubu slotted in a penalty just before the break for Odera’s side to enjoy a 24-19 lead.

The Namibians hurried Kenyans from the lineouts to score two quick pushover tries. They first leveled the scores 24-24 seconds after resumption from a converted try which took them in front 26-24.

The first 15 second half minutes were catastrophic from the Kenyans as Namibia added more tries for a 41-24 lead just before Kenya made two substitutions. The changes did little to halt Namibia from surging ahead.

Kenya’s efforts from a lineout near Namibia’s try line just before the hour mark were thwarted by the African champions who defended superbly.  

Kenya were lucky not to fall behind further after Namibia intercepted a pass but knocked on.

There was no way back for Kenya after Namibia added three more tries for another crushing defeat.

This was Kenya’s 11th loss (fifth consecutive) at the hands of Namibia in 14 matches since they first met in 1993.

In the first match of the four-nation Stellenbosch Challenge at Markotter Stadium, 34th-ranked Zimbabwe dismissed Brazil 24-22.