Well, it’s finally here..the HSBC sevens circuit kicks off in a couple of hours and finally we get to see the mboys in action! Personally I’ve been waiting for this moment since the 40 or so guys were called into camp, and yes we did get to see them during the Safaricom sevens, but this is the real deal!
Back home the Airtel Impala floodlit tournament enters its semi final stage with a set of interesting ties or should I say unexpected..most did not see this coming.
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| Captain’s call at the beach, AAA 5th on the left, but you knew that.. |
As we all know, Kenya is pooled alongside England, Samoa and Spain in Pool C, some one at the IRB must have known how eagerly we are all waiting to see the mboys as we will be playing in the first match of the day. A lot has been made of this match in the build up, what with Mike Friday meeting his former side and I don’t think I need to put it to you again. This one will be Kenya’s 434th match at the series, and a very important one, it will be the first in the journey to recovery. It’s importance will not really be result wise but its vital that we get in a good performance early on despite what the score board will read at the final buzzer. England are a great side but if history is anything to go by then we usually do give them a tough ball game.Last time we met, that piece of history failed to come into play..the red roses won by 40-7 in Scotland, by that time we were in free fall so it doesn’t really count hehe. Before that it was in Hong Kong, where we narrowly lost 21-17..I could go on and on but I must mention the 7 all draw in Vegas, it was our best result against them last season, point is..expect a cracker, if you do manage to wake up at 3 am!!
Second match of the day will be against Samoa at 6:58 am, I don’t have a historical pattern for them but I think it should be more or less the same as the roses. Last time we met they beat us 19-7 in a Pool A match in Hong kong, lost 19-14 in the Vegas main cup quarter, with the Samoans going on to win that leg. Before that they beat us 31-17 in the Dubai shield final. Another tough one but again looks doable… The last match on Day 1 will be against Spain, at 10:58 am, now I am not under estimating the Spanish in any way, they made core status last season but this one we have to win, we saw a glimpse of their team here at saf sevens and the Morans did beat them at the semi so yeah..
Progression to the main cup competition on Day 2 will highly depend on whether we beat one of Samoa and England or better yet both, I know I’m stating the obvious here but it has to be said, and hope one of the two fail to beat Spain or if they do with a smaller margin than we do. If we do make it to the Min Cup competition, I’d be a very happy man, and it would be a great start for the guys..
Kenya vs England 3:30 am
Kenya vs Samoa 6:58 am
Kenya vs Spain 10:58 am
With day one action at the Gold coast done, attention will now move to the Impala grounds for the semi finals:
Schools:
MFA v Mangu – 1.00pm
Lenana v Dagoretti – 2.20pm
Universities:
Kenya Poly v Machine II – 11.30am
Strathmore II v USIU – 3.30pm
Clubs:
Nakuru v Nondies – 6.00pm
