After the first class performance in Wellington, nothing had prepared us for what is a USA sevens to forget. Some would argue that they saw it coming but in all honesty no one saw this. It looked like the ghosts of last season had come back to haunt us in Vegas. This leg serves as a reminder of just what a young team we are in the development cycle, and how tight things are in the series. When we have used that last line (Things are tight in the series) we have always been on the right side of things, not this time.
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| Oscar in Action vs Canada (Photo courtesy of IRB) |
We really never turned up in Vegas, when we did show sparks of what we were capable of, like in the first half against France, we quickly crumbled. So what went wrong? I’d attribute our performance to mainly three things, the weight of expectation, fatigue and probably the weather.
At Wellington, the true potential of this squad finally seen by all as we headed into Vegas the weight of expectation and the euphoria probably got to the mboys, the little voices in their heads came creeping in. We have one of the most hectic travel schedules among the core teams, to get to Wellington for instance, travelled for close to 4 days. We did exceptionally well in NZ under the circumstances, though the two sudden death matches we played at the end meant our ‘fatigue debt’ was at an all time high. This one can be easily solved easily, with a little more injection of resources we can arrive early enough to fight off the jet lag.
Finally the weather, it was freezing cold in Nevada, thus the air was much thicker than we are used to. If you couple that with the fatigue I mentioned, you get the dull looking side we saw in Vegas. This one can be handled in two ways, the first being early travel and two changing our training locations to suit the places we will be travelling to, probably have camps in high altitude, like our track athletes.
Some of the other things are basically adopting to situations for example against South Africa, we kept on playing the ball deep inside our territory even though clearly this was not working. A good territorial kick would have taken the pressure off, I know that we would be risking possession but at that point it really didn’t matter. Against Canada, we opted to pound away at their defence which has been working great for us this far but the Canadians had us this time defending resolutely. Why not switch it up, go round them, or quick off loads once into contact? I am no coach but I guess what am saying is we need a new dimension to our play a plan B of sorts.
We slip to 6th on 56 points, if you had told me at the beginning of the season that we’d be this far at this point, it would have sounded like a dream. Two semi finals and a final is no mean feat, we now prepare for Hong Kong and Tokyo in March. I can almost put my head on the line and state here that, this is the season that we win our first main cup title..
The quarter finals of the Nationwide and Chairman’s leagues produced several shockers as some of the favourites fell by the way side. In the Nationwide, the Floodlit university champions USIU lost to Kakamega II 22-27 at their Thika road grounds. Other results saw high flying Egerton Wasps dispatch Masinde Muliro 36-19, with Mombasa SC romping to a 49-16 win over Kisii RFC. Eldoret booked the last Semi final spot with a 20-12 win over TUK ‘tuk’.
Nationwide Quarter Finals:
USIU 22-27 Kakamega II
Egerton 36-19 Masinde Muliro
Mombasa SC 49-16 Kisii RFC
Eldoret 20-12 TUK
The semi final match ups from this one are as follows:
Eldoret vs Kakamega II
Mombasa SC vs Egerton
In the Chairman’s league, Comras fairytale run kept going as they saw off Mombasa II 12-10 at the coast, with favourites Catholic University convincingly seeing off the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) 49-10. Thika RFC booked a Semi final berth with a 24-7 win over JKUAT Voi, the last Quarter final between Daystar and KEMU Nairobi was postponed to Tuesday.
Chairman’s Quarter Finals:
Mombasa II 10-12 Comras
Catholic University 49-10 TUM
JKUAT Voi 7-24 Thika RFC
Daystar – KEMU
The Semi finals will see Catholic University host Thika RFC, With the winner between Daystar and KEMU meeting Comras.
Catholic University vs Thika RFC
Daystar/KEMU vs Comras
The ESS saw the final fixtures of the regular season played out, and with 5 sides battling out for three semi final spots, there was bound to be heart breaks.
Leaders Quins II who already had both feet in the semi finals only had their illustrious unbeaten run to preserve and this they did in style, whooping Nakuru II 42-18. This sees them finish on 52 points, that defeat meant that Nakuru II’s season came to an end, finishing in 6thon 33 points.
The KCB cubs battled past a brave Machetes at the Blad bin eventually coming out 27-7 winners and book a home semi final spot courtesy of a second place finish on 38 points. The Machetes finished their campaign in 9th on 13 points.
The Impala boks who carry their clubs only hope of silverware this season did not disappoint, beating Homeboyz II 32-13 to finish third on 37 points and book a semi final berth against KCB II at the den. The junior Djs end their campaign in 8th on 16 points.
The last semi final spot was grabbed by the Catulus of Strathmore who beat Kisumu II 44-10 at the Kisumu Polytechnic grounds (or is now the Technical University of Kisumu). That win meant they finish on 36 points, Kisumu II on their part finish last for the second season in a row, this time on 3 points.
With the victors from the weekend done with, we look at the not so lucky. Starting with Mwamba II, going into the weekend, they were in second and needed a win against Machine II to ensure a home semi final. This however never happened, losing in dramatic fashion to Machine II 20-17, the losing bonus not enough to get them past Strathmore II. The two finished level on 36 points were separated on aggregate score, the Catulus holing the a +43 advantage here. That win sees Machine II finish in 10thon 12 points.
The other match here between Nondies II and Kakamega never kicked off and was thus postponed.
ESS
Quins II 42-18 Nakuru II
Blad II 7-27 KCB II
Homeboyz II 13-32 Impala II
Kisumu II 10-44 Strathmore II
Machine II 20-17 Mwamba II
Here is how the table looked at the end:
The Arturos’ (Quins II) dominance over this league cannot be over emphasized, 11 wins from 11, boasting of an average strike rate of 33 points a game and a concede rate of only 9. They head into the Semi finals head shoulders and stomach above their rivals. On the flip side, Kakamega II finish the season with the title of ‘leakiest defence’, despite having played a game less, than their counter parts. Currently they concede 41 points a match on average,. Kisumu II go home with not only last position, but bluntest attack averaging 6 points a game.
The top flight saw the top four coming into this last game day book semi final spots though in a re arranged order. The only standing unbeaten run also fell with teams putting their best feet forward on closing day.
At the Blad bin, Blak blad already knew that they were going to finish last no matter the result here when they hosted KCB. That however did not deter them from putting up a spirited fight against a largely second string Lions side to restrict the visitors to a mere 17-0 win in what was expected to be a big margin victory for the visitors. The blad defended resolutely over the 80 minutes, seemingly happy to soak in the pressure and causing the KCB defence a couple of problems themselves. The result as mentioned here meant nothing to Blad as they closed their first season back on a high, the Lions will however curse their luck as that narrow win meant they missed their opportunity at a Home semi, finishing 3rdon 41 points. A bonus win here would have seen them finish second.
In Kisumu, Strathmore put in a great second half display to get back from a 13-15 to eventually beat their hosts 30-15. Kisumu had been one of those places that Strathmore dont like travelling to, having lost here last season. Up until the break, it looked like the Leos would suffer their 3rd defeat of the season but it was not to be. A 15-0 second half score made sure that the XXVII crew took full advantage of results elsewhere and finish first on 44 points. Kisumu finish in 11th on 6 points, with only 1win to their name. A major slump from last season.
At the Kakamega high school, Western Bulls looked to charge at 8th position when they hosted Semi final hopefuls Nondies. Both teams with one eye/ear in Nairobi, the match ended in a 26-27 win for the hosts with this not being enough to finish in eighth as Impala had won their fixture. The Total Nondies finish in 6th on 31 points, a massive improvement from last season, the red lions can be proud of this campaign and might prove to be the start of a turn around for the one time giants of the game. Western Bulls finish their debut season in 9thon 22 points, the Echulusi’s is probably among the best finishes by a rookie side in the top flight in recent times, probably only bettered by Machine in the 70’s.
At the Jamuhuri grounds, it was the battle of 7th vs 8th as the Homeboyz faced off with Impala. The Djs who by all standards had improved in their sophomre season were looking to improve their placing to truly reflect that position. To do this they had to get past a rejuvenated Impala side who have had their worst season in history. It was the red shirts that came out on top here, 35-17 and end this season on a high probably sending a signal of intent to the rest of the league going into the next tournaments. Homeboyz still finish 7th on 30 points, as mentioned it has been a great season for the djs at some point they were fifth. In contrast Impala finish 8th on 24 points finishing outside the top four for the second season running.
4th placed Mwamba made the short trip on Uhuru highway to the UoN grounds only needing a point to secure a semi final spot against Mean Machine. With half of the ears at RFUEA paying close attention to this one, Mwamba went into the break 15-10 to the good with scores at the RFUEA not a concern for them. At this point there was still hope from the quarterd shirt faithful that machine could pull a surprise win here. That hope was quickly crushed in the second half as Kulabu romped to a 44-10 win here a hatrick of tries from Jumba, with other scorers being Agevi, Edgar Abere and the returning George Mbaye. Mwamba thus finish in fourth on 40 points, grabbing the last semi final spot. Machine finish in 10th on 13 points, another disappointing season for the Eschuma, one that never really took off despite a patch of good performances at one point.
Leaders going into this weekend, the Menengai Oil Nakuru RFC brought their unbeaten record to the RFUEA against defending champions the Lunch bar Harlequins. Quins who had to win here with a bonus and hope that the score they put here would cover the 10 point deficit they had to Mwamba in the aggregate section. It was a long shot, but one worth taking and took it they did. Quins got matters started on the right note with a 6-0 lead with two penalties from Asiligwa, this was however short lived, as the Wanyore got into the scoring through a converted penalty try to take the lead 6-7. Quins have another go at the post, Asiligwa making it 9-7 before Nakuru’s Ben Buda made sure his side took a 9-10 lead into the break.
That was the last time the Wanyore had the lead in the game, Quins going ahead through a Sydney Ashioya try to make it 16-10 after Asiligwa’s conversion, Ben’s penalty reduced the deficit to 3 points at 16-13 in what was the final score from Nakuru. From this point Quins stretched that lead from a Nato Simiyu penalty, Man of the Match Patrice Agunda went over twice with one of those converted to bring the score at the final whistle to 30-13. Nakuru slumped to their first defeat of the season and thus relinquishing top spot to finish second on 42 points. Quins’ title defence comes to an end despite that win and finish fifth on 35 points, that loss to Homeboyz and draw to Machine have come back to haunt the, the Quins have not looked like the all dominating side of the last three seasons and will have to regroup going into the Enterprise Cup.
With that the Semi finals will see KCB travel to Nakuru with Strathmore hosting Mwamba, based on the previous meetings of the sides, it looks like it’s going to be a Nakuru and Strathmore battling it out for the title under the Kasarani floodlights on 23rd. I bet KCB and Mwamba will have something to say rather do about that.
Kenya Cup
BlakBlad 0-17 KCB
Kisumu 15-30 Strathmore
Western Bulls 27-26 Nondies
Homeboyz 17-35 Impala
Machine 10-44 Mwamba
Quins 30-13 Nakuru
The table at the end of the league round:
Leaders Strathmore finish with the most rampant attack, with an average of 31 points a game ahead of Nakuru and KCB who stand at 30.2 and 30 respectively, they also take most solid defence at 12.6 just ahead of KCB at 12.8.
No prizes for guessing who has had the most generous defence, Blak blad conceding an average of 36 points. They also are the most impotent attack averaging 8.8 points a match.
Finally an appeal to us all, one of our own Lyle Asiligwa of the Lunch Bar Harlequins needs our help. His mum has been battling with breast cancer since April 2011. She won that battle after successful round of Radio and Chemo therapy treatment, but late last year in October 2012, the cancer cells resurfaced in her lymphatic system. She started the second round of Chemotherapy today and will need further treatment in India for 6 months. As you can imagine, the financial implications of this treatment are astronomical.
Send donations to help out with the treatment and imminent recovery of Mrs. Esther Asiligwa, via Mpesa to 0718394890 (to MMBONE MUSERA) or online through the following link : https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/4QvK9?fb_action_ids=602612449754455&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%257B%25226026124497544
Prayers and any other kind of support are welcome. Thank you all. Also like this page on Facebook for any more information on the same
With that Ladies and gents, have a great week ahead aaaannnnnnndddd……
KWISHA…..Nimeruka Nje!!!!!
