Kenya will have to win by nine points in Sunday’s rematch after going down 22-14 in the first-ever Women’s World Cup qualifier in Africa on Thursday afternoon, at the NY Centre in Nairobi. The victors on aggregate will go on to represent the continent in the inaugural 2025 World Series.

The hosts were 12-0 behind at the break but came out strongly in the second half to make it 16-14 after two tries in four minutes from winger Merisha Negesia, but outstanding loose forward Rachel Iliya’s second try for the Green Falcons saw them home.

Nigeria women’s head coach, Bolu Fagborun, said: “It was tough, I knew there would be periods in the game when we’d have to dig deep and credit to Kenya, they stuck in the game. We’re only halfway there, we’ve got two training sessions before Sunday and we’re going to work on some things we’ve seen in this first game. I think we’ve got more points in us and we’re going to concentrate on what we did in defence in the first half.”

In windy conditions, tries by Blessing Aladeyelu, who linked from fullback and stepped to the line and Precious Ukwuom, who went through a gap following a penalty, both converted by Blessing Umude, gave the visitors a two-score lead at the break as Kenya struggled to complete their sets.

Nigeria skipper, Rukayat Jimoh, noted: “We have prepared for this for so long. We are very happy that we won this first battle, but we expect the next one to be tougher than this. This is just the beginning, we have more to showcase.”

Kenya centre Lewin Amazimbi went over out wide as the they began a second half revival, Negesia’s tries either side of the hour mark responding to Iliya’s first, which also came from a penalty.

Kenya women’s head coach, Antonio Lombardo, said: “We didn’t do everything we wanted or needed to do at a given moment, but we showed that we could play. We made too many errors in the first half, but we sat down at the break and talked about what we needed to do and just fell short.”

Just as Kenya were searching for a winning score, they lost the ball on their own 20 and Eko Trinity’s Iliya went over by the posts from the base of the resulting scrum.

Lovinah Mijere, Kenya’s captain, noted: “It went well even though we lost, so we just need to work harder for Sunday’s game. We will be working on holding onto the ball and our defence.”