I am quickly running out of superlatives to describe these sevens weekends, but what a weekend that was in Mombasa. As expected, Mombasa delivered in a way, it only can, so what stood out?
New Champions
We had tried predicting who between the two front runners would slip up in Mombasa, but no one saw both of them failing to reach the final, worse still Strathmore finising in 6th place!
In the asbcence of the two, logic dictated that it was the Oilers who were next in line to pick up the Driftwood title, especially after they finally saw off KCB in the cup semi final, convincingly so! Unfortunately, sevens rugby does not follow logic, up step Mwamba, who finally broke into the Cup semi finals, to edge out Homeboyz then literally strangle the Oilers 19-7 to lift the cup title!
The results mean that the race to the overall title is wide open heading to the 3 weekend sprint starting with Dala sevens on 1st of July. KCB now top the standings on 58 points, five ahead of the second placed duo of Strathmore and Oilers, who in turn sit five points ahead of Mwamba on 48. Take out those calculators, you will be needing them from this point on!
Injury Count
A concerning sight at the Mombasa Sports Club was the number of injuries players suffered over the two days, I don’t think there is a team that left unscathed. Not sure what the cause of this drastic spike in injurues, especially lower limbs was but I hope the experts look into it.
Kenya Sevens
We had hoped to see a bit more of the Kenya sevens players mixing it up in Mombasa but with the Commonwealth less than 60 days out, it was understandable that a bulk of them remained in camp. It was however great seeing Damian McGrath and Kevin Wambua at the Mombasa Sports Club, closely following proceedings. Expect any new inclusions to the team to be made later in the year, as mentioned ealier we are in a quite tight calendar.
Women’s Rugby
We really missed the action in the women’s category at Mombasa, with the Women’s series (which consists of three tournaments), returning for the final showdown at the Prinsloo sevens. There will however be a tourament this Sunday at the Impala Club, see you there!
As always, the comments section is open in case I missed something that stood out for you, otherwise, let’s enjoy this break before we go on that back to back to back run!
KWISHA…Nimeruka Nje!!!
