Game Week 15, The Review.

Hallo one and all..I hope you enjoyed your rugby weekend as much as I did. Let's look at the results from around the country

Kenya Cup
Kisumu 10 - 17 Impala
Homeboyz 28 - 22 Strathmore
Machine 12 - 24 Nondies
Quins 38 - 14 Nakuru
KCB 28 - 17 Mwamba

ESS
Western Bulls 14 - 3 Impala II
Homeboyz II 28 - 42 Strathmore II
Machine II 10 - 22 Nondies II
Quins II 34 - 3 Nakuru II
KCB II 16 - 16 Mwamba II

NationWide Semi Final
Eldoret RFC 12 - 13 Blak Blad

NationWide Quarter Final
Masinde Muliro 3 - 22 Mombasa RFC

NationWide Plate Semifinals
Maseno 24 Webuye 0
Kisumu II 0 Kakamega II 24

So that was how game week 15 played out, the Nationwide league first semi final saw Blak blad edge out their hosts Eldoret in the first leg semi, Eldoret will travel to thika or is it Ruiru eehh huko to play Blad in a fortnight (yaani the other weekend) to decide who will go to the final. In the delayed quarter final, Mombasa Rfc saw off Masinde Muliro to book a semi final spot against USIU, the kenyans studying in America but still in Kenya had earlier seen off Moi University 7-3. 

In the ESS the Western bulls kept their run at the top going with a victory over the Impala seconds, Quins kept up their chase in second with a resounding victory over Nakuru II while the cubs of KCB managed to salvage a draw at the death against Mwamba II. The top two in this league, Western Bulls and Quins II are separated by a single point with the latter (Quins II) having played a game less. The KCB cubs are a distant third, as you will see from the tables in a short while.

To the big one now, and we start at the lake side where Impala managed to crawl back from a 8-0 deficit early on in the first half to register a 17-10 against Kisumu, their first in the last four matches. The kondele boys will take something more than the bonus point they earned from this one, as they did put up a real fight against their much fancied opponents, they also did manage to reduce the score line from the first meeting between the two which was at 59-3. For Impala it was a perfect start to the new coach Namcos Simiyu and his technical bench and they will hope to build on this victory in the next fixture.The result sees both sides remain as they were heading into this game, Impala 6th, and Kisumu 10th. 

Next we move to the Impala grounds where Homeboyz hosted Strathmore. It was a match that most only saw one winner and that was the XXVII crew, but as I had mentioned it was not going to be that straight forward. In the end the djs showed us that they can turn up if and when they decide to, Strath were quicker off the blocks taking a 5-0 lead but from this point on the djs took over, scratching and mixing their way past the students from the good university. The djs have now won two on the trot as they look to finish the season on a high. With that result, barring a miracle it looks certain that Strathmore will have to look to the new season for their maiden title, as they find themselves in 4th, 11 points from 1st having played a game more. Homeboyz remain 9th though they are stretching the distance between them and last placed Kisumu.

At the UoN grounds, Nondies survived an early scare by their hosts to finally earn a bonus victory against Machine and all but win the battle for 7th. The scores were 7-5 to Nondies at Half time before the red lions ran rampage with three tries in the second half. Machine will rue their second half capitulation following their first half showing. In the end the Eschuma were overwhelmed by the size of the white shirts, and the yellow card to their influential captain Cedric Odera did not do them a whole lot of good. Nondies leap frog Machine into seventh after this result.

To the match that was billed as the title decider by many, this one at the RFUEA grounds, the early trials for the Rhinos franchise of the upcoming Bamburi super series, the Wanyore up against the lunch bar quins. It was the visitors that took the early initiative with a converted try from kick off, through Kwame Owuor and Martin Mwita. Then from this point the Quins took over with a quick try to level the scores, then another three to earn a bonus, before Nakuru came back into it with one of their own to bring the score to 26-14 at the half. The second half was all Quins as they scored 12 unanswered points to secure an overwhelming victory never mind that they saw yellow on two different occasions. This result takes the lunch bars 8 points clear at the top, with 4 games left to play. So should the Quins start the party already? not yet, they still have a pretty tricky set of fixtures left and we have already seen how unpredictable this season has been, so don't rule anything out..yet. That being said, you'd be either very brave or just a plain fool to bet against them defending their title based on current form. The Wanyore will now have to win all their remaining fixtures and while hoping that the lunch bars slip along the way for them to take the title to the rift valley.  

Finally to my feature match, at the lions den ruaraka, KCB hosting Mwamba in another early trial for yet another Bamburi franchise, the Lions. KCB were 4th going into this a point ahead of their visitors in fifth, what most people don't know, or they know but chose to ignore is that KCB have not lost at home this season. So having mentioned that, the lions were putting their unbeaten record on the line, against the side that ended their other unbeaten record earlier in the season. The game started with KCB showing just why they have not lost at home this season, they were immediately on the attack from the kick off and on the score board through a Dennis Mwanja try and a Peter Mutai conversion. Borrowing from the waswahili, 'punde si punde na ghafla bin vu' KCB were 17-0 up after a Peter Mutai penalty followed quickly by an unconverted try. Mwamba would regroup to put in a run of several phases that earned them a penalty just within striking distance, but they scoffed this chance. KCB now with a spring to their play, running the black shirts at will would further stretch their lead to 22-0 with a try at the corner by Brian Omondi. Peter Mutai unable to convert it, the game would go into the half with those scores.

The second half started with Kulabu on the ascendancy, owing to the changes they made at the half and the fact that KCB seemed tired after that blistering first half showing. The pressure from the black shirts eventually paid off with a try by Dan Sikuta and the resulting conversion by Marlon Ondiege, 22-7. Mwamba continued with their second half revival, Pablo with some great hits to earn his side valuable ground. A try by George Wakasyaka for kulabu to bring the scores to 22-12, Mwamba were now sensing a comeback as they dominated huge chunks of this half.  KCB now limited to a few attacks here and there, would win a penalty which Peter Mutai took to take the scores to 25-12. Mwamba would continue to dominate the game but failed time and again to turn this dominance into points especially from the penalties they won, add to this the fact that KCB were down to 14 men for much of that period. KCB would again stretch that lead to 28-10 as they begun their hunt for the bonus point. The bankers would now camp inside the kulabu 22, winning a series of penalties which they opted to boot out for the lineout and rightly so, but the black shirts were relentless in their defense especially at the maul. Kulabu would put together one last attack on the break, great work from that man Edwin Machanje to bring the game to within 11 points with no more that 10 minutes left on the clock. KCB would however be the one's playing with a renewed urgency, going close to making the bonus earning try on two occasions, but on each kulabu standing their ground. This phase of pressure would see Mwamba's Saki Tuni receive a yellow card for a dangerous tackle, there was however little time to make the numerical advantage count, as KCB ended the game as they had started it.

It was a game of two halves indeed, with the final result seeing KCB keep their unbeaten home run going and their title hopes alive, on the other hand Kulabu's hopes to the same blown away by the game's final whistle. The black shirts remain 5th on 40 points, while the lions move to third on 45. The black shirts will rue their chances especially from the boot in a solid second half showing in which they out scored their hosts 17-6, if they had converted their penalties we would have been talking of a different tale here. KCB on the other hand will be proud of their flawless first half display, though they might beat themselves up for not earning the bonus point. My man of the match goes to Mwamba's Edwin 'Pablo' Machanje, he worked tirelessly for his side through out the 80 minutes,and looked dangerous every time he had the ball in hand. Other notable performances were by Dan Sikuta for Kulabu, Leslie Mango, Dennis Mwanja and the half back combination of Collins Kimani and Peter Mutai for KCB.

With those results the league standings look like this :

KENYA CUP
Team       P     W    D    L    FOR     AGG      DIFF     BON      PTS 
1.Quins   14    11   1     2   325         146          179        8            54    
2. Nakuru 14   9    1     4   303         210          93          8            46    
3. KCB    14   8     2     4   293         215           78         9            45   
4. Strath   15   9     0     6   257        189           68          7           43   
5. Mwamba 15  8    0     7  376         254          122        8           40 
6. Impala   14   6    1     7  276        259          17            6           32
7.Nondies 14    5    1     8  255        268         -13           6          28   
8. Machine 13   5   0     8  162       262          -100        4            24
9. Homeboyz 13  4 0     9 193       296         -103          3           19
10. Kisumu  14   2  0   12  191       498          -307        5          13   

Eric Shirley Shield.

Team        P      W    D   L   FOR   AGG   DIFF  BONUS    PTS
1.W.Bulls 14   12    0    2   278      107      171      10          58
2. Quins II 13  12   1    0  348       97        251       7            57
3. KCB II  14  10   1    3  200      145       55         6            48 
4. Strath II 14  8    0    6  238      168       70          7           39 
5. Nondies II 14 6  1   7  192       198      -6           6           32
6. Nakuru II 14  6  0   8  150       204    -54           4           28 
7. Mwamba II 15 5 2   8  190      228    -38           4           28
8. Impala II 14   5    0  9  186      258    -72           3          23
9. Machine   14  3   0  11 180      285   -105         6           18
10 HomeBoyz II 14 0 1 13 139   375    -236         2             4

As mentioned earlier, the University league enters the quarter finals stage, the fixtures are as follows :
Egerton vs Kabarak (Egerton)
Kimathi uni vs Multimedia(Kimathi)
Kenya Poly vs Blakblad II (KU)
Catholic vs Thika rfc (CUEA)
  
I came across an interesting set of stats over the weekend, regarding our refs, according to the stats, a total of 80 cards had been ditched out this season by the end of game week 14 (Kenya cup, ESS and Nationwide leagues). One Godwin Karuga had given 14 yellow cards in as many games, add the two he gave this weekend to the Mathenge bros and his tally stands at 16 cards in the 15 matches he has officiated. Second in line is Constant Cap with 6, excluding this week's cards if any, then followed by Chris Okumu with 4. In the ESS Allan Khakame had dished out 9 cards before this game week, Sarah Otieno had raised 6 cards in the air. KCB have been on the receiving end of the most cards, with 14 adding the one they got this week that makes it 15, with one being red. The lions are followed by Strathmore with 12 yellow cards, then Quins complete the top three with 10 yellows. (The stats courtesy of ollows.com)

In other news, Homeboyz RFC have appointed Bill Githinji the immediate former coach for Impala, as their Technical director, effective immediately. Bill brings with him a host of experience to the Kenya cup debutants, having coached both KCB and Impala in his illustrious career. He re unites with Paul Murunga who doubles up as a player and a coach for the Dj outfit, he coached 'Pau' during his very successful tenure at KCB. Whether this tag team will bring the same success they shared in that period will be seen come the next season.

This year's Great Rift Ten-A-Side Tournament will be held as usual at the N.A.C during the Easter weekend (for the kafiris that will be on 6th -8th April). This will be the 9th edition and will be played under the theme “The Pirates of The Rift” Let's hope that this time they do have floodlights at the grounds, hii mambo ya kushare trophy hapana!!

Last but definately and by no means least, the mboys left for Hong Kong on Sunday, and arrived safely on Monday evening, all ready to take on the world in the 6th leg of the HSBC sevens circuit. For those who forgot we are pooled with Samoa, England and Argentina. More on the same in my next post..

Oh before I go...the all blacks who wear red, a.k.a Wales secured their 3rd grand slam in 8 years with a 16-9 victory over the french. *insert katumbo dance here*

I leave you with this clip rather advert "HSBC fancy dress street rugby" some great crunching tackles in there I must say...na kuna mguyz anaminywa step ya ukweli at 00:17 hehehe, enjoy!!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19cdZm-gLQw&feature=youtu.be

And with that ladies and gentlemen.......

KWISHA!!!!!

*walks away stroking imaginary kitambi*