Game week 17 and Tokyo 7's Preview.

Top of the Friday to you all fair persons, yeah yeah I know you missed me..it's been a pretty busy week! That aside..and onto to the rugby.

The mboys made the short trip to Japan for the inaugural leg of the Tokyo sevens, looking to build on the Bowl victory in Hong Kong. Looking back at the Cathay pacific sevens (that’s Hong Kong) it was the little mistakes that were our biggest undoing, and with the opposition we were up against such mistakes were gladly punished. With that experience the mboys will relish this new challenge and will be looking to get back into the main cup action, here is our pool and timings (Kenya time) :

Pool C:

Argentina

Wales

Kenya

Russia

Fixtures:

Argentina vs Kenya - 4:44 am

Wales vs Kenya - 8:41 am

Russia vs Kenya - 10:57 am

Definitely a better looking pool than the one we had in China, favorable times too. I said better, that doesn’t mean it’s an easy pool, the mboys have a chance to immediately avenge the loss to Argentina and see off sevens world champions Wales and Russia while at it. This pool is pretty manageable, and I have a really strong feeling that we are going to top this one and put in a hell of a show in Japan..main cup final even, Yes you read that right. 

In the Local scene, the university league enters the first round of the semi finals with the following fixtures :

Catholic Uni vs Egerton (CUEA)

Blakblad II vs Multimedia (KU)

The second leg of the Nationwide Semi finals will also take place this weekend :

Blakblad vs Eldoret (KU)

USIU vs Mombasa (USIU)

Mombasa narrowly beat the Kenyans locally studying in the U.S 7-5 and will look to build on this result when they visit thika road. 

In the ESS, the battle for various positions in the league continues with the following fixtures lined up :

Western Bulls vs KCB II

Homeboyz II vs Nakuru II

Strathmore II vs Nondies II

Machine II vs Mwamba II

Quins II vs Impala II

The Western bulls who are still perched at the top of the standings hosting the third placed KCB cubs should be a cracker of a match. 

The big boys in the Kenya cup will face off as follows :

Kisumu vs KCB

Homeboyz vs Menengai Oil Nakuru

Strathmore vs Nondies

Machine vs Mwamba

Quins vs Impala

Kisumu rfc will welcome KCB to the Kisumu polytechnic,both sides come into this one having lost their previous fixtures. KCB losing at the last minute to Impala and the kondele boys being humbled by Strathmore. KCB saw their remaining hopes of winning the league fizzle out last weekend with that Joel Omer try and will be basically fighting for a better posting on the table in the remaining fixtures. The lions will be clear favorites in this one but they should be weary of a Kisumu side that turns on the style at home. The Kondele boys will fancy their chances of hitting the wounded lion while it is still licking its injuries from the last weekend. The last time these two met at the den, KCB ripped Kisumu apart 57-0, will the lions be able to repeat this result?

The resurgent Homeboyz will be playing host to the Menengai oil Nakuru at the lions den in Ruaraka, the rift side recently benefiting from a sponsorship from Menengai oil hence the change of name, so should we now refer to them as the oils? Back to the game, the djs are coming into this one beaming with confidence after impressively putting together their 3^rd win in a row last weekend at Nondies, the yellow stripes will be looking to carry on this form when the wanyore come calling. The Wanyore whose title hopes were given a major boost by kulabu will be out to gain maximum points here and take advantage of any slip ups by the league leaders. Both sides will have their work cut out for them in this very unpredictable fixture. The last time the two met in Nakuru the Wanyore oils (lol!) were comfortable 37-10 victors, repeating this will be a tough task for the rift side. 

Third placed Strathmore will entertain the Total Kenya Nondies at a venue to be confirmed later in the day. The students from the good university fresh from that resounding victory over Kisumu will be out to build on this result when the white shirts of Nondies come knocking. They will however know that this will be a different ball game altogether against us guys of Nondies. The red lions will be keen on erasing that painful one point loss they suffered at the hands of Homeboyz last weekend and with the djs just two points behind them, expect the rangers to come out all guns blazing. The XXVII crew on the other hand are playing their second last game of the season and will be looking to finish the season on a high. They are now 7 points off the top and will be looking to win this game and make up valuable ground. Last time the two met, Strathmore run away 33-17 winners a repeat of the same will do them just fine.

At the UoN grounds Mean Machine will welcome old foes Mwamba in what has always been a crunch match. These two have shared a great rivalry over the years and matches between them are always special, I don’t expect this one to be any different. Last time these two met, Kulabu narrowly won it 23-20. The two come into this one off different fortunes, Kulabu with that 16-13 victory over Quins and Machine losing 28-5 to Nakuru. But at this game has proved before, recent form books bare no meaning to the teams and this will be a cracker of a match. Kulabu will definitely look to keep the momentum from the Quins game going as they seek to end the season in a better position than they currently are, 5^th. Eschuma will be looking to slam the brakes on their recent slide down the table after a promising rally up the same just a few weeks ago. The eschuma are 9^th though 3 points behind Homeboyz.

Quins at Impala earlier in the season.

The return leg of the Ngong road derby, the lunch bar Quins vs Impala will be staged at the RFUEA grounds. These two bitter rivals will face each other in another epic encounter, last time out the lunch bars made an easy meal of the gazelles 22-13. The two sets of fans have been at it for the better part of the week and come Saturday it will be time for the talking to stop and the shouting to start. When the two met last time, Impala dominated most of the match but could not make their dominance count against a Quins side that was highly efficient. The red shirts will be looking to rectify this if they are to make the walk back to Impala with the bragging rights. Impala come into this one off two wins in two after a long run of dismal performances, these two victories, especially the one against KCB will have built a new confidence within the gazelles. Meanwhile the lunch bars saw their 10 match unbeaten run come to an end at the hands of Mwamba, though still sitting pretty at the top of the standings, but not as pretty as they were after the Nakuru game. The quartered shirts will look to get back to winning ways and the fact that it is Impala they are playing will just make their desire that much more. 

Scenes from the last encounter.

Heading into this game week the table looks something like this:

1. Quins – 55
2. Nakuru – 51
3. Strathmore – 48
4. KCB – 46
5. Mwamba – 44
6. Impala – 36
7. Nondies – 29
8. Homeboyz – 27
9. Machine – 24
10. Kisumu – 19

To the siasa, the KRU Annual General Meeting was held yesterday at the RFUEA and boy what a meeting that was! Among the contentious agendas was the return of the balance sheet and account statements from last year, after a heated debate it was decided that the chair will convene a SGM to adopt the same once they have been audited and select new auditors. The next agenda was the elections and after ironing out a few issues on who votes and how many times the votes were cast and here are the new faces at the Union :

Secretary - Jack Okoth

Treasurer - Gabriel Ouko

Directors - Phillip Jalango

                - Isaac Mwangi

                - Chiro Nyinge

There was a tie for the post of Vice chairman between Sadik Makii and Sasha Mutai and after the Chairman abstained from voting it was decided that there will be another vote during the SGM. After the vote, the other issues that were raised were the summary dismisal of Sabwa and the cancellation of the SGM that was to ratify his suspension.Then came the motion for a vote of no confidence on board directors Nyamondi, Adembesa and M.Rabar. After intense lobbying between the board and the delegates and several impromptu meetings, the motion was withdrawn. The meeting thus ended with the delegates enjoying drinks together at the bar. In the end as most people put it, the game won! All the best to the new office holders...as they take on the task of taking the game to new heights.

With that fair ladies and gents.......

KWISHA!!