It could never have happened at a better place than Twickenham Stadium, fondly known as the theatre of dreams or simply the home of rugby union.
The London-based 82,000 seater was full to capacity when Kenya Sevens utility back Collins Injera celebrated a milestone on May 21, 2016 after scoring at the death against France at London Sevens to become World Rugby Sevens Series all-time highest try scorer.
Even though Kenya Sevens lost to France 12-29, that did not remove the shine from Injera’s exploits as he was set up by elder brother Humphrey Kayange at the in-goal area to make the historic try that saw him top with 231 touchdowns.
“It’s a great feeling and a milestone since I started playing rugby,” says Injera, who started playing the game while at Vihiga High School, before joining the now defunct Ulinzi RFC and then his current club, Mwamba RFC.
A mass communication degree holder from Kenya College for Communication Technology (KCCT) (Now Multimedia University), Injera was nominated for the 2008–09 World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year award, but many were shocked when he was bypassed with Ollie Phillips of England winning the award. Nevertheless, Injera went on to clinch the Safaricom Sports Personality
of the Year Award (Soya) in 2009.
In 2010, he was awarded the Presidential Order of Golden Warriors (OGW) alongside his brother Kayange for their performance in the 2008-2009 World Rugby Series.
Injera was part of the history-making team that won the 2016 Singapore Sevens where he was named player of the final. Incidentally, it’s Kenya, that had stunned Fiji 30-7 in the final. It was the first time Kenya won an event in World Rugby Sevens Series since inception in 1999.
Injera also played for the Kenya National 15s team, the Simbas, during the 2011 World Cup Qualifiers.
Born in Nairobi and raised in Eldoret, he is now placed second for number of tries scored (271) on the World Rugby Sevens Series.
— Ayumba Ayodi
