It was a weekend made for the ‘Ks’ as the undertaker had rightfully predicted, as Kabras and KCB booked their semi final slots in rather contrasting form.
While Kabras were made to sweat it out in the last few minutes on their way to a 16-15 result in Kakamega, KCB had no such problems at the Jamuhuri grounds where they were rarely perturbed by a wasteful Djs side. The two wins however had one common trend, the kickers.
Fabian Olando kicked in 11 points of the 16 scored by Kabras with Darwin Mukidza putting in a master display off the boot to kick in 100% of his kicks, to put up 20 points of the 25 scored by the Lions.
At the Jamuhuri grounds, the Lions did not waste time in making their intentions known, going 3-0 ahead inside the first 3 minutes. They were rampant in the opening exchanges, an Ian Indimuli try at the stroke of 10 minutes put a bit of daylight between the two sides after Mukidza’s conversion, making it 10-0.
The Djs finally made forays into their opponent’s territory, off some beautiful work from the likes of Haroun Lubisia and Alvin Otieno. They however lacked the accuracy to turn possession into points, mainly due to KCB’s relentless defence. Haroun Lubisia finally got them on the board from a penalty, in between two Darwin Mukidza penalties, to take the score to 16-3 at the breather.
While KCB had been accurate in that half, the Djs had been quite the opposite, Lubisia had do far scuffed 3 penalties and they had failed to score from inside the KCB 5 yard line on 2 occasions.
The second half started with the hosts on the ascendancy, but again failing to turn possession into points, Mukidza would add two more penalties to make it 22-3. This then sparked the Djs to action, finally scoring, off a rolling maul, Felix Ojow going over to make it 22-8 with a little over 15 minutes left on the clock.
Despite their best efforts at a comeback, the Djs could not get any more points on the board, as Darwin Mukidza fittingly sealed a 25-8 win for the Lions.
At this point news trickling in at the Jamuhuri grounds indicated that Nakuru were on the verge of a great comeback, now trailing Kabras by a single point with precious seconds left.
Most on the ground had been staying abreast with the proceedings at the Kakamega showground. A first half converted try try from Sava Racigi and an Olando penalty had seen the teams go into the break with Kabras holding a 10-0 lead.
Olando then further stretched his side’s lead upon resumption to make it 13-5, before the Wanyore turned the tide. Mike Okombe went over to make it an 8 point game at 13-5. Olando was once again on hand to stretch his side’s lead from a penalty to make it 16-5. A further 13 points from Ayah’s penalty, and a converted Charles Odhiambo try made sure of a nervy ending at the Kakamega Showgrounds.
There was however no denying Kabras who held on for a 16-15 result to march on to the semi finals where they will meet the Kenya Harlequins. KCB will play Impala.
Mouth watering encounters indeed, will the ‘Ngong road mafia’ prevail to give us a Ngong road derby in the final, or will we have a repeat of last year’s final? Or maybe one of the favourites, Quins and Impala will fall at the semis. We can’t wait for the semis..
It will be an all Nairobi affair in the Nationwide final as USIU play the Catholic Monks, USIU blanked Moi University 46-13, while the Monks beat Kisumu RFC 35-23 to book those slots. Nakuru II will play Impala II in one ESS semi final, with Quins II playing Kabras II in the other.
KWISHA…Nimeruka Nje!!!
