Top of the Monday to y’all, or what’s left of it.for those of you who are not yet on holiday mode, poleni jo! Maybe a review of the past weekend will do you a gram of good..Maybe, maybe not but either way here it is..
Dadex in action vs UAE (photo courtesy of thenational.ae ) |
The men came back from Dubai, having climbed (is that right, climbed?) four places in the IRB rankings after finishing second in the Emirates four nations cup. Their last game saw them come up against their unranked hosts UAE, who have been the whipping boys of the tournament truth be told. I think this tournament has been a great learning experience for them and indeed us, the score on the day was 55 – 12 to Kenya. It was virtually one way traffic through most of the match, a free flowing performance from the men and you could see that they enjoyed themselves. The hosts rarely threatened our defence, the few times they did, a lapse in concentration from us saw them cross the line, nothing as serious though. I will not be picking a man of the match from this one as I feel we did well in all departments and it would be an injustice to pick one player.
As I said before this tournament has given us a great learning opportunity and a chance for the fifteens side to prove their worth, and prove it they did. More of the same exposure will go a long way in realizing project 2015. By more of the same, I mean matches against opposition of the same calibre as Brazil and Hong Kong, yaani teams ziko ranked juu yetu. In fact we should leave the Elgon cup to Tanzania and Uganda so that the earlier can also improve hatuwezi wacha mabraza meni wetu nyuma! Let’s challenge Namibia, Morocco, Zimbabwe, Tunisia hell even the Boks..
The Kenya Cup played out the last fixtures of 2011. The league entered it’s midterm break with three matches on the card, here are the results:
K.C.B 25 – 15 Nondies
Impala 18 – 22 Nakuru
Kisumu 8 – 64 Mwamba
Impala continued their shaky start to the season as they fell to the wanyore, it’s looks like a long season ahead for the gazelles, but hey it’s still too early in the season to make any predictions. In kisumu the kondele boys were handed a reality check as kulabu made an easy meal of their hosts, running away as comfortable winners. This result sees the men in black end the year top of the league owing to their superior points scored tally to KCB, though they have played a game more than the bankers.
To the feature match, the clash of the lions (red vs. green), the red one though beat up in its past encounters was looking to dent the unscathed green one. The green one showed its intentions from the word go as it was on the attack and was rewarded 22 seconds into the encounter, pap! Darwin Mukidza mtoto wa mombasani with a try, 5-0 to the green one. This set the precedence for the early exchanges as the green simba took the upper hand. Punde si ghafla, the green one reverted to one of its more popular attack tactics, going for touch after winning a penalty inside the red’s half, won the resulting line out and mauled over for the try, Eric Kabii doing the honours 10-0. The red lion wasn’t going to take this lying down, as it pushed into green territory and earning a penalty that it took with arms or is it paws wide open..10-3. The green one also put in a penalty of its own, as it set tent in Red territory, Fabian ‘Rango’ Orlando getting in one for 13-3. The red lions trainer (with an ipad for his tactics) Kanyi Gitonga could not wait until the break to enforce his fading lion, so he threw in a couple of familiar faces to the green lion in Derrick Wamalwa and Edwin Alubaka accompanied by Teddy Salano and Ken Nyagetuba. The move saw the red lion improve in the forwards, the half drew to a close with the scores at 13-3, as rango hit the posts from a penalty.
The red lion (Scar) would be the one on the left. |
The second half saw the rejuvenated and re enforced red lion turning on the heat on the green one. With the new faces adding the extra punch in it’s attack, this saw former green lion (now painted red) touch down from a series of slow balls to make the scores 13-8. The green lion took this as a wakeup call putting together quick plays from the backs, as it looked to counter the red lions now dominant rather heavier forwards. This being said it was still a forward Sidney Mwai, who would score the try for the green simba, rango this time making no mistake from the conversion 20-8. The red lion was still not lalaing kifudi fuidi, as he roared and made forays into the green territory, his attempts were met by a resolute defensive display from his opponent. The green lion landed the final blow to earn it a bonus point via Ian Indimuli, as the match approached its conclusion. Still the stubborn red simba threw the last blow, the last punch of a dying lion, Ken Nyagetuba with a converted try, 25-15 it ended. A great performance from the green lion sees it stay unbeaten and roar on, the red lion lives to fight another day. My man of the match from this one, (drum rolls) Phillip Wamae, led his men from the front, was superior in the line outs which was the source of 3 out of the 4 tries KCB made, he defended resolutely and carried the ball superbly, as he brought the flair of sevens rugby to the 15’s. Also worth mentioning is Derrick Wamalwa and Leslie from the red lions. Oh by the way the cubs encounter also ended in victory to the green one..17-6. So that settles the fight of the lions round 1, from the result I now baptize Nondies ‘Scar’ and K.C.B ‘Mufasa’ no..Mufasa lost to scar right, well KCB are ‘Simba.’
The ongoing K.U.S.A games at the ruaraka sports club (lion’s den) are currently at the semi final stage, the first one having been a clash between the so called ’only university in the world beside Cambridge and Harvard‘ a.k.a Nairobi Uni (Mean Machine) against the disciplined students of Strathmore a.k.a XXVII crew, ended 10-5 to the latter (kama kizungu ni hard, I mean Strath). The other semi is has ended 5-0 to USIU aganist Blackblad in a highly tempered match. Here are the collated results courtesy of the KRFU.
POOL A
UoN 15 KEMU 0, Kimathi 0 Nazarene 8, Kimathi 7 KEMU 5, Nazarene 0 UoN 29
POOL B
Strathmore 21 Kabarak 0, Kenya Poly 0 Kabarak 3, Strathmore 29 Kenya Poly 0
POOL C
Catholic Uni 18 Meru Uni 3, Moi Uni 0 USIU 10, Catholic Uni 0 USIU 3, USIU 36 Meru Uni 0
POOL D
Mt. Kenya Uni 5 Multi Media Uni 0, KU 31 Multi Media Uni 0, Mt. Kenya Uni 7 KU 3
Quarter Finals
UoN 28 Catholic University 0
Strathmore 12 Mount Kenya 0
USIU 39 Nazarene 0
Kenyatta University 12 Kabarak 0
Semi Finals
Strathmore 10 – 5 Machine
U.S.I.U 5 – 0 K.U
Final.
Strathmore vs U.S.I.U
One thing is for sure, by the end of tomorrow we shall have new champions, the defending ones JKUAT did not participate hence did not make it to the final (it’s rather obvious). Most of them especially those who were affected by the speed bumps strike a.k.a the supras and heels march (Yaani Jkuat Karen) are still sitting their exams. The Strath, USIU match is going to be one hell of a final, my duel of the game sees two of the budding young fly halves in the country come up against each other..Andola for strath vs Adimo for USIU! I hear U.S.I.U don’t want jokes, kuna bonus ya nguvu should they win.
Finally a shout out to all those who honored the Kenya cup matches with their respective clubs, wakadunda and yet turned up a good performance for their schools on Sunday and today, sitawataja ju axe inaweza land ama laguash ikatwe, we wouldn’t want that now would we.. Big up yourself bubo..(Jamaican accent!)
Remember K.C action resumes on 7th January 2012, during this midterm break, the transfer period is open, thus clubs are allowed to buy and sell players..keep it here for the latest scoops!
With that ladies and gentlemen..here’s wishing you a great festive season, enjoy yourselves truly and don’t do anything I wouldn’t….come to think of it, what wouldn’t I do..mmmhh drink and drive is one of them the other would be using a condom oh sh**, I mean not using one..lol! Any way you get my point and let’s see each other here Next year majaliwa!!
KWISHA!!!!
*Walks away, arms in pocket whisoling ‘It’s a time to be jolly..tralalala..lalala..laaaa….*