Game week 8 preview and the boys are back!!!

Good day to one and all..another weekend, another feast of rugby awaits us, so let’s see what’s in store.

KENYA CUP
KCB vs Kisumu – Lions’ Den Ruaraka
Mwamba vs Machine - RFUEA
Nondies Vs Strathmore – Jamuhuri grounds
Nakuru vs Homeboyz – Nakuru Sports club
Impala vs Quins – Impala grounds

ESS
KCB II vs Western Bulls
Mwamba II vs Machine II
Nondies II vs Strathmore II
Nakuru II vs Homeboyz II
Impala II vs Quins II

Nationwide East
USIU vs Mombasa
Oryx vs Blak Blad
Pwani vs JKUAT

Nationwide West
Bungoma vs Eldoret
Maseno vs Kisumu II
Masinde muliro vs Webuye
Moi Uni vs Kakamega
Kisii vs Siaya

Universities
Kenya Poly vs Blak blad II
Catholic vs Thika
Nazarene vs Kemu
Daystar vs Kimathi
Egerton vs Multimedia
Comras vs Kabarak

KCB entertain the kondele boys at the lion’s den in what should be an easy hunting day for the lions, am not writing off Kisumu in any way but this looks like another tough game for the lakeside club. KCB will be looking to improve their point aggregate, which has been holding them down as they have been behind on points on several occassions. Kisumu who are bottom of the league will be massive underdogs in this one, though the rugby ball has a very unpredictable bounce, thus I never right anything off in this sport.

League leaders Mwamba also have what looks like a walk through the park this weekend as they take on 9th placed Machine. I don’t expect this one to be as easy, Machine are fresh from the victory over Nakuru and will be buoyed by the same. Add to this the fact that kulabu will be missing some of their seasoned players who will be on sevens duty and you can not dismiss Machine's chances of winning a second game on the trot. This game which was originally scheduled to take place the Nyayo national stadium will be played at the RFUEA grounds due to the change in fixture dates.

Second placed Strathmore will be the guests of the rejuvenated Nondies. The XXVII crew will definitely fancy their chances against us guys of Nondies after their morale boosting win over Kisumu. Be that as it may, Nondies are no Kisumu and the white shirts will be keen on continuing their decent form and ascendancy up the table. They will again look to their forwards to deliver them the victory, this should be a tight one not unless otherwise.

Homeboyz make the trip to Nakuru, in what will be a pretty tough outing for the DJs. Nakuru is not an easy place to go to under normal circumstances, add that to the fact that they lost to Machine last weekend and you have an injured mnyore who is a very dangerous creature. Homeboyz will look to borrow a leaf from the eschuma book on how to tame the mnyore, the fact that Nakuru lost to Machine will be a boosting factor to both sides. To Nakuru as they definately wouldn’t want to lose for the second time kwanza at home, and to the Djs who will have the ‘If Machine could do it, so can we’ mentality and will be keen on kicking the wanyore while they are down, so to say. This should be an interesting one as I feel anyone could win on the day.

To the big one, the Ngong road derby, Impala hosting Harlequins. This game is usually one of the picks of the season and I expect no less this time round. The defending champions Quins are just about getting their campaign back on track after the win over Mwamba and will not take any slip ups. Impala who managed to steady their ship earlier in the season will look to continue piling the pressure on the teams above them and top spot is a possibility for them at the end of the day. Despite all this, the two sides will be playing mainly for pride, anything that comes with the win for either will be a welcome bonus. Both sides will be missing key players but it’s the quartered shirts that will be hit the hardest with 4 players missing, though this should serve as no excuse to either team. It goes without saying that this will be my featured match.


The mboys are back in action..The sevens squad was named earlier in the week and if you haven’t seen it by now here it is:

Sidney Ashioya (Captain)
Humphrey Kayange
Leon Adongo
Lavin Asego
Nato Simiyu
Victor Oduor
Patrice Agunda
Mike Wanjala
Horace Otieno
David Ambunya
Collins Injera
Oscar Ouma

Non Travelling :
Kennedy Moseti
Biko Adema
Mike Agevi

Technical Bench:
Mitch Ocholla (Coach), Charles Cardovillis (Assistant Coach), John Mbai (T.M), Felix Ochieng (Performance Analyst), George Odhiambo (Physio), Geoffrey Kimani (Conditioning Coach)

This squad is to the Wellington (Feb 3 -4) and Las Vegas (Feb 10 - 12) legs and departs on Saturday evening. In all, seven changes have been made to the squad that represented us in the first three legs. We are in agreement that this is a very strong squad with loads of experience, this is a side that can take us to the Main cup final I believe.

More of this mboys!

It’s generally the same faces Benja used but with little tweaks and twists here and there, like the addition of Nato, a very good attacking player who can open gaps in the tightest of defences something we missed in the first legs. Ambunya was once used by Ayimba so nothing new there, I hope that these tweaks go further than just thr faces and that Mitch will look to utilize the players a bit differently. As one of the things that had led to our poor performance last season was that our play had become rather predictable and thus it was easy for teams to close us down. An interesting point to note, apart from Felix Ochieng making a comeback to the technical bench, is that we will have only 11 fit players in the Wellington leg as Lavin is yet to fully recover, he’s 80% there according to the technical bench and should be ready to go in Vegas. His inclusion in the travelling team is due to the experience he possesses, after all he is the most capped sevens player we have. Let’s hope we don’t suffer any more injuries in the Wellington leg, fingers crossed. One more thing, if I were to be asked to add to that squad, I'd slot in one Dennis Mwanja, yes he still has it, kwanza in bag loads if you have watched him play then you will agree, question is, who would I chuck?

Moving on, the team has set out a goal to reach the main cup quarters first, a very achievable goal from where am sited, so here’s wishing all the best to the mboys..we are behind you like your asses!!! (That didn’t come out right, but you get the point)

With that ladies and gents…..have a fantabulous weekend ahead na kwa wale wamelipwa do share na msiringe saana next weekend si mbali….

KWISHA!!