Here’s hoping you are all doing just fine or in other words mko tu sawa on this Thursday or should I say Manchester day? Moving on very fast to the weekend ahead, The Kenya fifteens squad is in Dubai for the inaugural Emirates four nations rugby cup, the sevens team is down south for the Mandela bay 7s and the local league enters match day 3 yes three!
We move in the order above, first here is the 15’s squad in case you missed it:
Fowards :
Joel Nganga [Captain]
Vincent Ongera
Dennis Karani
Anthony Mutai
Ronnie Mwenesi
Duncan Ekasi
Moses Amusala
Brian Okwomi
Curtis Lilako
Daniel Kiptoo
Dennis Mwanja
Kevin Umbuge
Lawrence Buyachi
Backs:
Vincent Mose (Vice Captain)
Edwin Achayo
Ken Andola
Allan Omuka
David Ambunya
Anthony Nyandigisi
David Mogere
Mathew Musita
Peter Mutai
Isaac Adimo
Kelvin Omiyo
Humphrey Kayange
Calvins Biko
A very able squad from where am sited, one that can bring back the trophy by all means. We are up against Brazil, Hong Kong and the hosts UAE. I’ve watched a few clips of the Brazil 15’s squad, not as lethal as their soccer counterparts but they can really run the ball for such huge guys.Hong Kong are the highest ranked team in this tournament (29) hence they are sort of favourites to win the tournament, followed by Brazil (30), UAE are just looking to be ranked. We are currently ranked 39 by the way, that’s if you forgot. This tournament will have a great impact on our project 2015, for those not familiar with the project, firstly it is no project 2030, and secondly it is to see us qualify for the world cup in 2015. Back to the implications this tournament has on the project, if we do win it then we will improve our rankings significantly. This higher ranking will come in handy when we do play the qualifiers, how? We will be drawn against a weaker opponent (read Uganda) hence a slightly easier path to the World cup. Let me stop getting carried away, let’s win it first then I’ll chorea you that map in detail! Here are the fixtures:
10 DEC 2011 Brazil Vs Kenya
10 DEC 2011 Hong Kong Vs UAE
13 DEC 2011 Hong Kong Vs Kenya
13 DEC 2011 UAE Vs Brazil
I still don’t have the timings and tournament format, that is what I could gather from Irb.com. Being a four nation format I think it goes to the final from there, featuring the two teams that have accumulated the most points. Will inform you as soon as I get the full info.
It won’t be easy, but I believe that we are up for it. A victory against one of Brazil or Hong Kong will be a great achievement for the men (note the difference not mboys) let alone winning it! So all the best to them..
The mboys start the Nelson Mandela bay 7’s tomorrow; here is the day 1 match schedule in Kenya time :
Kenya vs. Australia (3.11 pm)
Kenya vs. South Africa (5.55 pm)
Kenya vs. Canada (7.55 pm)
Not an easy pool this one, in fact according to me this one is tougher than the one we had in dubz, meaning it’s a great opportunity for the mboys to show the quality they have. It’s about time I started lining up the doubters and smacking them one by one so come on mboys!! As mentioned in the Monday post, Wamae ‘Odiero’ replaces Agevi who has school commitments, exams nini nini which begs the question alibeba vitabu kweli? Wamae being a forward slots in maybe at hooker with Patrice moving to Centre, so a forward line of Andrew, Wamae and Oscar not bad but again it’s a maybe, mi si Mitch. We wait and see, am not under any illusions, but this one will be a turning point for us that is all am saying.
The Kenya cup enters match day 3, which sees league leaders Strath make the short trip to ruaraka, Nondies crossing the railway as they take on Impala. Here are all the fixtures:
Kenya Cup
KCB v Strathmore Leos
Impala v Nondies
Quins v Homeboyz
Mwamba v Nakuru
Kisumu v Machine
Eric Shirley Shield
Western Bulls v Machine II
Quins II v Homeboyz II
KCB II v Strathmore II
Impala II v Nondies II
Mwamba II v Nakuru II
Nationwide League (Western)
Webuye v Kisumu II
Maseno v Kakamega
Masinde Muliro v Siaya MTC
Moi University v Eldoret RFC
Kisii v Bungoma
Nationwide League (Eastern)
Spartans v Blak Blad
USIU v KCA
Oryx v JKUAT
Mombasa Poly v Pwani University College
Universities League
Thika v Blak Blad II
Kenya Poly v KEMU
Catholic v Kimathi
Nazarene v Multimedia
Daystar v Kabarak
Egerton v Comras
Quins vs Homeboyz should be a great game, Machine vs Kisumu should be an interesting one as well and as always Nakuru vs Mwamba is usually a cracker! One thing to note is that most teams will be missing their seasoned players who have been called up to the 15’s squad. It should be interesting to see how the teams cope without them.
My feature match this weekend will be (drum rolls) Impala vs Nondies, this one because they all lost lats weekend and will be looking to redeem themselves with a first win of the campaign. The fact that they are cross railway neighbours just goes to add to the intensity of this one. With that ladies and gentlemen…..nimewazungulu!
KWISHA!!!
