If I had to pick my most memorable rugby weekends, this past one would definitely feature in the top 3 and for obvious reasons.
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| The Mboys… |
The mboys in Wellington brought a whole nation and indeed half the rugby world to their feet, then to their knees, then on their bums all in 20 or so minutes. In what has been touted as one of the greatest finals the sevens world has seen. Before getting to the final, a smaller crowd had witnessed the mboys see off South Africa 21-20 in the Quarters by the grace of God if I may add, then go on to beat hosts New 19-14 in Sudden death.
After a five year wait, we had another shot at a Main Cup title, a few hundred miles from Adelaide Australia, where we had our first taste of a big final. Collins Injera the only player in this squad that played in that final in 2009. In Adelaide it was basically one way traffic as we fell 26-7 to a South Africa side that we had beaten 15-14 in the pool stages. This time round against the English, who we had met once before, in the opening game of this season in Dubai, that one ending in a 14 all draw. It was bound to be a close final. I wont go much into the game, we all watched it some several times over.
It was a master class performance from the mboys, the defensive discipline and composure coupled with an effective attack that we had shown through the 2 days was clearly evident in this one.
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| Willie vs Tomasi Cama |
With 30 seconds to go, the cup was well on it’s way to our clay house and container offices along Ngong road, down to 6 and still England could not find a way through. It was until we were 5 that they broke us, into sudden death and we could only go so far with 6. I wont blame our loss on the ref as most have decided to, the two yellow cards were warranted, but there should be a rule that you can not just throw cards all over in a final. That would however mean that players would be rather reckless knowing that they wouldn’t be easily sent off. Anyway our loss was down to one thing, inexperience at that stage, the two cards were down to that. A first final for these players, being so close..you are bound to get carried away in the moment.
We come out of this one with valuable lessons, and as our recent history shows we are very fast learners, we lost heavily in our first Semi, went down in the 3rd and fourth play off. Picked lessons from that, narrowed the margin in our second Semi, went on to finish third in that leg. This time we won our Semi and narrowly lost in the final… join the dots.
By all means, we left Wellington as winners, they just gave the cup to the wrong guys hehe.
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| Oscar and Andrew after the NZ win. |
We move on to our home away from home, Vegas, second on the log in the overall standings on 56 points, NZ are first on 77. You can bet that we will have an ‘X’ on our backs in Vegas, everyone will be out to beat us.
We are pooled with South Africa, Canada and Tonga. As we have seen over the past legs, there are no easy teams. It’s a tricky pool, the Khoisans posing the greatest challenge, revenge will be on their minds. Canada should be the surprise package in this one, they do tend to ‘kaza’ when we meet them. Tonga who like us tend to carry the ball more often than not are no push overs We have met all the above this season, and beaten them all, I don’t see why we cant confirm those victories in Vegas. Confidence will be at an all time high in the camp, I’m sure Big M and the technical bench will not let that get to over confidence as we move on.
Back home, the last round of league fixtures in the Nationwide and Chairman’s leagues were played out with the Comras picking up the last Play off spot on Sunday afternoon after beating Nazarene 29-11 in the Chairman’s university league. Masinde Muliro’s 24-0 over Siaya confirming their second placed finish in the Nationwide Western conference.
Mombasa sealed first position in the Nationwide Eastern edition, with a walk over 24-0 result against KCA, the MRC side are yet to taste defeat. They lead USIU, the Egerton wasps and TUK ‘tuk’ into the quarters. The game between the last two ending in a 11-10 win for the latter (TUK)
Eldoret, Masinde Muliro, Kakamega II and Kisii RFC the one’s to face the quartet from the east.
The Chairman’s Universities edition will be represented by Catholic university, Daystar, Thika RFC and as mentioned earlier Comras. They will face Mombasa II, JKUAT Voi, KEMU Nairobi and Mombasa Polytechnic from the Coast edition.
The quarter final pairings are thus as follows:
Nationwide:
Eldoret vs TUK
Mombasa SC vs Kisii RFC
Masinde Muliro vs Egerton
USIU vs Kakamega II
Chairman’s:
Mombasa II vs Comras
Catholic Uni vs Mombasa Polytechnic
JKUAT Voi vs Thika RFC
Daystar vs KEMU Nairobi
Special mention to some of the teams that were making their maiden appearances in the leagues, first up Kakamega II and the Comras who made it to the Quarter finals in the Nationwide and Chairman’s leagues respectively. Then, Masaku and the Portland Stormers who came in 5th in their respective leagues, just short of a place in the Quarter finals. Masaku finished on 19 points, a point behind Mombasa Poly in the Coast edition of the Chairman’s league, with the Stormers also coming in fifth in the Eastern edition on 21 points, 1 shy off the Comras. More on these fixtures to come..
A big congratulations to the quarter finalists and to all the teams that made it through the regular season, lets meet up in your next assignments.
The battle for the Semi final slots in the ESS just got tighter after the weekend’s matches. First a look at the results:
ESS
KCB II 21-25 Quins II
Nakuru II 61-0 Kakamega
Strathmore II 54-6 Blad II
Mwamba II 33-0 Kisumu II
Impala II 25-14 Machine II
Nondies II 41-7 Homeboyz
Leaders Quins II kept their now astronomical run going, edging out the KCB cubs 25-21 at the den, stretching their lead at the top to 12 points. That loss by KCB II saw them slip into third on 33 points with Mwamba II jumping into second on 35 points.
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| Action from the Den in the ESS. |
KCB II are tied on 33 points with Impala II but hold an impressive aggregate tally of +186 points compared to the boks’ +20. The Strathmore Catulus are in 5th on 31 points with Nakuru II on 29 points after that huge win against Kakamega.
The top flight saw KCB’s 5 week stay at the top of the log come to an end as they suffered their second defeat in as many weeks and their first at the den this season to the Kenya Harlequins. Other results are as follows:
KENYA CUP:
KCB 12-25 Quins
Nakuru 71-3 Western Bulls
Strathmore 71-0 Blakblad
Mwamba 36-3 Kisumu
Impala 21-5 Machine
Nondies 44-26 Homeboyz
Nakuru went back to the top of the standings courtesy of that massive win over the bulls at the NAC. The Wanyore at this point odd on favourites to claim their first Kenya Cup title, they seem unstoppable especially at their backyard the ‘Suguta valley’ and with a home semi on the cards you can say that they are all but in the final. That win took them to 42 points, 3 ahead of second place. The Bulls will have great lessons from that match in what has been an impressive debut season by all standards despite falling to their 3rd defeat in a row. They are in 9th and could finish the season in 8thwhich is currently 3 points from their grasp.
Strathmore jump into second on 39 points after that win over campus rivals Blakblad, the Leos are now poised for a home Semi final. Their only loss at the Cage being to leaders Nakuru who they will definitely not meet at this point thus they will fancy their chances against whoever it will be. This has been a learning experience for the blad, though a cruel one. Under Tank they should pick up valuable lessons especially against this Strathmore side who were in the same situation a few seasons back and have grown leaps and bounds to serious title contenders. The Blad remain last on 1 point.
Fourth placed Mwamba ensured that they remain on course for a semi final berth against leaders Nakuru with that win against Kisumu. The black shirts are now on 35 points, 2 points behind third placed KCB and with the bankers fading they have a chance of avoiding the trip to Suguta valley. Kisumu remain second from bottom on 6 points and are set to finish in the same position as they are 7 points off 10th place. A disappointing season for the Kondele boys and with talk of in fighting among the top brass, it’s about time the lakeside outfit put their house in order if they are to survive the axe next season.
Impala made it three wins in their last three with that win over Machine, to leap frog Western Bulls into 8th on 20 points. This is the highest the red shirts can finish with 7th place 9 points away with one game to go. It has been a catastrophic season for the gazelles, though you could look at it as a rebuilding phase. These wins will prove vital come next season as the group builds their belief. Machine sink to their fourth defeat in a row, and what had been a rejuvenation of sorts has surely faded away. The Eschuma are in 10th, on 13 points though they can finish in 9th as they are currently 4 points adrift.
When Homeboyz played Nondies, it was the battle of the outsiders, it looked like it would be a game of small margins. This was however not the case with Nondies romping to a 44-26 win to keep their outside hopes of a Semi final slot alive. Nondies are on 30 points in 6th , tied with rivals Quins, to make it to the Semi finals, they should win with a 25+ margin and hope Mwamba and Quins fall. That loss means that the Djs fall off the race to the semi finals in 7thon 29 points, 6th place is still in their sight to finish what has been a great improvement from the Homeboyz in their sophomore season in the top flight.
The feature match at the den saw defending champions inflict on KCB only their second defeat of the season and keep their hopes of progressing to the semis alive. The win moved Quins to 30 points and into 5th, 5 points behind Mwamba heading into the final set of fixtures. The Lions on the other hand slipped into third in a match that they played second fiddle to the defending champions over the 80 minutes. What had looked like an almost sure match to the title looks to have lost steam with the latest defeat. Quins came to the den with one clear intention and it showed from the start, running proceedings from the start and getting over the line within the first three minutes through Leroy Anyembe. The hosts would regroup to score via Joel Sang to level it before Sudi touched down to make it 12-5 after Asiligwa’s conversion. From this point on in the first half, it was Asiligwa’s show, rather his boot. Quins’ forwards doing great work in forcing errors from their counter parts at the set pieces, Lyle kicking in two penalties and missing two before the break to make it 18-5 at the break.
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| Lyle Asiligwa. |
The second half was the same story with KCB looking blunt going forward, with Quins keeping their tactical discipline to keep the Lion’s charge at bay. The Lions would however get on the score board through substitute scrum half Marlin Mukolwe after Quins failed to clear a the ball from a 5 yard scrum . Mukidza making it a 6 point game from his conversion to make it 18-12. The following phase of play saw KCB take the upper hand, their forwards coming to life, taking the game to their opponents. Though Quins did seem to lose their composure at times, KCB never did capitalize on this period of play. Quins would get back into the match, through a Jeff Ojwach try making up for the Marlin try at the other end, this time picking up from a scrum in the KCB 22 to score. Asiligwa converting to make it 25-12. From this point KCB were out of sorts, with Quins going for the bonus, but it was not to be.
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Quins kept their 3 year dominance over KCB running, they have not lost to the lions in the league since 2010. My man of the match has to go to Patrice Agunda at 13 for Quins, he was a constant thorn in the KCB defence whenever he was on the ball. Closely followed by Ian Indimuli, playing at 6 for the Lions, he gave it 150% at times it was like he was playing alone out there..cross covering from touch line to touch line to make vital tackles. Other performers Edwin Salamba, Amusala and Omondi for KCB, Nato Simiyu and Asiligwa, Ashioya for Quins.
Looking at the final fixtures, it is going to be a great finish to the regular season, with the battle for Semi final slots finely poised.
With the country’s focus now on Kenyan rugby, let’s hope the corporate arm of the union can ride this wave and get sponsorships for the leagues and indeed the national 15’s side. The performance of the sevens side goes to show the heights we can reach with the right structures in place. The Fifteens provisional side is currently on a heavy conditioning program, with more resources availed to them there’s no stopping this side.
Finally an appeal to NTV, as they are the only one’s who showed interest in airing the sevens matches. Please do the same this weekend, hii mambo ya kudoea kwa neighbours at ungodly hours, inatugonganisha na mabibi. We are not even asking for the whole tournament, just the Kenya games 3 on day one and 3 on day 2. It’s not like you air anything major at those hours…Thank you very much. (This also goes to all other TV stations, hata GBS hatujali bora tunaona mechi..)
With that ladies and gents, have a great proud week ahead as you recruit new rugby fans, ooh they are ripe for the taking… aaannnnnndddd…..
KWISHA….Nimeruka Nje!!!
I leave you with a video I was to post few weeks back, of the Kenya 7s urging us all to maintain the peace during this election period..now that they are rock stars maybe you’ll listen….
Don’t mind the Jerseys….
