The second edition of the Masaku sevens will take place at the Machakos Golf Club this Saturday in Machakos County.
The tournament enjoyed raving reviews from last year’s edition for its fan fare. This year the organizers are looking to build on Last year’s gains while adding a bit more quality on the pitch. 16 teams will be battling for the Masaku title.
Defending champions Quins lead the 16 sides divided into four pools of four. The teams include Pirates from Uganda, British Army and the newly formed Kabras.From the initial list of 16, Kobs and Rhinos of Uganda have been replaced by Mean Machine and Blak Blad. The 15’s season has just kicked off in UG so it it understandable that the teams would like to focus on that.
The Pools are thus as follows :
Pool A : Quins, Nakuru, Machine, Savanna Stormers.
Pool B : Homeboyz, Kisumu, Nazarene, Kilunda.
Pool C : Mwamba, Impala, Blak Blad, Daystar.
Pool D : Pirates, USIU, British Army, Kabras.
Very exciting pools they have come up with, though they will serve to increase the quality of play with top teams meeting each other early. It runs the risk of seeing some of these sides thrown by the way side and put the Day 2 competition in jeopardy. On the flip side if they do fall, it will be more exciting to see the ‘smaller’ teams in action on the big stage. A risk worth taking from my side…
Pool A
Pool A will probably be the pool of death, defending champions Quins face Nakuru, Machine and the Savanna Stormers. The defending champs will definitely have their work cut out for them as they get their title defence against the Stormers.
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| The defending Champions |
The Stormers were Semi finalists last year and are no push overs, they have just unveiled a 1.2 Million sponsorship with Savanna Canvas and are high on morale. Quins, the defending local circuit champs, like most of the sides here, will look to use the tournament as a warm up for the upcoming Safaricom sevens circuit.
Nakuru who have enjoyed the best 15’s season in their history will be looking to transfer that success to the sevens. They however struggled during last season’s sevens circuit, with one cup final at home their best performance over the 5 legs. Machine also struggled last time out and will be looking to improve on their performances this season starting from Masaku.
Pool B
Pool B sees Homeboyz take on Kisumu, Nazarene and hosts Kilunda. The Djs showed a lot of promise during last season’s circuit and will be out to keep the good run going. They have however suffered a player exodus, which has seen them lose several faces that were in last season’s team. They have however managed to hold on to the most significant face in Oscar Ayodi.
Kisumu came a long way last season, breaking into the Cup competition for the first time in a long while. The Dala hosts, who will be welcoming the sevens world to their backyard next weekend will be out to put in a great show here in preparation for their tournament.
Nazarene have been frequent participants in previous circuits, they played in two of the five legs last season. For the students this will be a great opportunity to keep learning and growing.
Last year the hosts with the services of guest player Collins Injera, they managed to win one match. They have come a long way since, playing in the Chairman’s league in the 15’s participating in two sevens legs and in every occasion improving. This will be a good litmus test for the team to show them how far they have come.
Pool C
Pool D
