Kenya Rugby For Dummies – Part 1

In appreciation of the fact that, the sport that they play in heaven, is quickly gaining quite a following in the country. We have decided to come up with a guide of sorts, to new rugby fans or guys who are interested in the game. Think of this, and the next instalments in this series, as your Kenya ‘rugby-pedia.’

A section of the crowd from the 2014 Safari 7s (Photo : Arigi Obiero)
A section of the crowd from the 2014 Safari 7s (Photo : Arigi Obiero)

I should have probably run these lessons before the sevens season, but hey, I am early for next season.

Ok, gather around ‘kids’, in this first lesson, we will be tackling a lesson that has caused you so much trouble over the years, Tournaments. I will try to throw in the basic terms of the sport at the tail end of the lesson, if I get the time.

The best place to start this lesson is the forms of rugby played in the country and indeed world wide. There are basically four forms of Rugby Union :

  1. 15’s Rugby.
  2. 10’s Rugby.
  3. 7’s Rugby.
  4. Touch Rugby.

I’ll start with the most popular, number 3, sevens rugby. Here we have seven players in every team playing for two halves of seven minutes each. This format is basically an introduction, to real rugby, 15s rugby. Examples of tournaments in this format are the Safari sevens, Prinsloo sevens, Kabeberi sevens and yes you guessed it, Masaku sevens.

The National sevens team that has recently been christened ‘Shujaa’ plays this format in the World series. Taking them to places like Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Dubai etc.

The second and fourth formats are not really as popular, I have never figured out why 10’s rugby is played really. I’ll give you that as an assignment..an example of tournaments in this format are the Nakuru 10s that is played over the Easter weekend. This format is played with 10 players from each side, for 2 halves of 10 minutes each.

Touch rugby is quickly gaining popularity, and as the name suggests it is a friendlier and more fun form the sport, where you only need to touch the opponent instead of tackling/wrestling them to the ground. (That part about it being ‘more fun and friendlier’ is highly dependant on who you ask.) Diani, Quins and Impala are some of the places that host touch tournaments.

Onto real rugby, 15s rugby, first it is played by 15 guys on each side as you might have guessed, but this one is played for 80 minutes in total, two halves of 40. To call yourself a rugby follower, you have to understand this format. It is a bit complicated, but once you get it, you will have no better joy.

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Some action from 15s rugby

We just kicked off the 15’s season last week, a perfect opportunity for you to learn the greatest sport on God’s green earth. The tournaments that are currently running are the Nationwide league, The Eric Shirley Shield and the top flight Kenya Cup, the equivalent of the English Premier League.

The best thing about these tournaments is that you don’t have to go to a single venue, matches are played across the country. These tournaments run for 4 to 5 months, so you will find a match right at your door step over most weekends.

So we have skimmed through the variations of the sport, now let us go back to the tournaments that fall under the different versions. As it might have hit you by now, not all rugby tournament names end with the word ‘sevens.’

With the recent sprouting of tournaments all over the place, I will only stick to the major tournaments.

Lets start with what should be your immediate concern, 15s rugby :

  • Impala Floodlits a.k.a Floodies – You have probably heard of this one. The tournament is played over three weekends with 8 sides in the Schools, Universities and the Clubs categories.Matches are played well into the night, just a heads up, the Impala grounds tend to get really cold at night, and I mean really cold, please plan appropriately. Over the recent years it has been played during the month of October, right after the Safari sevens. Yes this year’s edition was concluded a few weeks ago.
  • Kenya Cup – the region’s premier club rugby competition, runs for up to four months, and is contested between 14 of the best sides in the country. This year’s edition, as I mentioned kicked off last week. Matches are played almost every Saturday afternoon from Mombasa to Kakamega, it would be good to pick a club to support/follow, we will get to the clubs soon, in the meantime just support KCB.
  • Running concurrently with the Kenya cup is the Nationwide which acts as a feeder to the Kenya cup, in that the top two sides at the end of the Nationwide get promoted to the Kenya cup to replace the bottom two sides there.
  • Also running at the same time with the Kenya Cup is the Eric Shirley Shield, commonly referred to as the ESS. This one is contested between the second string sides from the Kenya cup teams, thus you will see names like KCB II, Quins II, Mwamba II and Nakuru II. The matches here usually reflect the fixtures in the Kenya cup. Take for instance tomorrow, Impala will be playing Homeboyz, this match will be preceded by Impala II and Homeboyz II.
  • Enterprise Cup – Kenya rugby’s equivalent of the FA Cup, this is the oldest tournament in Kenya rugby history. Knock out competition that features 12 sides with the top four sides from the previous competition gaining automatic qualification to the quarter finals. (Oh wait too much detail..sorry, just know in this competition, you lose, you are out!).
  • Running concurrently with the Enterprise Cup is the Mwamba Cup which is divided into two divisions. This one sees the second string Kenya cup sides compete against the Nationwide sides.
  • The Rugby Super Series – known as the Bamburi Rugby super series, this one is played right after the Enterprise cup. This one can get a little confusing as it involves the Kenya Cup clubs forming coalitions that are referred to as a ‘Franchise.’ For example KCB, Mwamba and Homeboyz provide their best players to the Papa Franchise, all the Universities form their coalition which is currently referred to as Kengewa. And so on and so forth…
  • The Chairman’s Cup runs at the same time with the Super series, the players who did not make it to the series sides battle it out here under their respective clubs. If say a KCB player failed to make the Papa squad they have a chance of playing in the KCB squad for the Chairman’s cup.

Haya, mpaka hapo iko swali?

Let’s move to the sevens tournaments, not much you don’t know here, so I’ll just list them for you.

  1. Safari Sevens – That was recently played at the Kasarani stadium,yes Safaricom sevens.
  2. Prinsloo Sevens – Hosted by the Nakuru RFC in ‘NaxVegas’ Nakuru.
  3. Christie Sevens – Hosted by Kenya Harlequins at the RFUEA grounds, Nairobi.
  4. Kabeberi Sevens – Hosted by Mwamba RFC at the Railway Club, Nairobi.
  5. Driftwood Sevens – Hosted by Mombasa at the Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa.
  6. Dala Sevens – Hosted by Kisumu RFC, in Kisumu.
  7. Masaku Sevens – Hosted by Masaku RFC at the Machakos Stadium.

There are multiple other sevens tournaments that have started coming up in each county, very soon we will have more than 47 sevens tournaments.

There are few ten’s tournaments the major ones being :

  • The Great Rift Ten a side – This one needs no introduction, held annually over the long Easter weekend at the town of Nakuru, Nax Vegas.
  • The Nairobi Tens – Formerly called the ‘Homeboyz One Night Stand’ this one held in the capital is hosted by Homeboyz RFC

That does it for this lesson, is there anything I have left out?

The mtiaji kid stands up, “Sir, you said you are going to cover the basic terms of rugby..” The rest of the class almost maul the poor kid, the bell rings…

Leave your questions/suggestions for future lessons in the comment sections.

KWISHA….Nimeruka Nje!!!

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Poghie

A rugby fan having fun!

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