The caravan that is the National sevens circuit, makes it's way north west from Nairobi this weekend for it's second leg the Airtel Dala sevens in the city of Kisumu. 32 teams will take the Kisumu Polytechnic pitch on Saturday to battle for the Dala sevens title. The teams will be divided into two divisions, Division 1 holds the 20 top teams while division 2 holds the rest of the pack, here are those pools for you:
DIVISION ONE
POOL A POOL B POOL C POOL D
Quins Mwamba KCB Strathmore
W.Bulls Nakuru Kisumu Homeboyz
Blakblad KCA Eldoret Impala
Catholic Uni Multimedia Uni Stormers Daystar
DIVISION TWO
POOL E POOL F POOL G POOL H
Kisumu II Kericho Bungoma Oryx
Busia Masinde Muliro Webuye Thika RFC
Siaya Unicef Kakamega Comras Kisii
Kitale Mbale Molo Mumias
Fresh from their win at the Christies Quins enter Kisumu as the team to beat, they are joined in Pool A by the Christie Shield and Bowl winners in Catholic University and Western Bulls respectively, the other team being Blakblad. The quartered shirts should find this pool pretty straight forward with Western Bullds looking like the favourites for runners up. Quins will have the pleasure of opening the grounds so to say as they play Blakblad in game 1 at 10am, they then play Catholic university before finishing up with the Western Bulls.
Last week's losing finalists and defending Dala champions Mwamba headline Pool B, they are joined by Nakuru who were beaten at the Plate semi finals by the hosts of this one Kisumu RFC. The Wanyore will have to step it up from lat weekend's showing where they looked too casual. The other two teams being KCA and Multimedia who were promoted to division one after Machine and Kenya Poly who were slated to play in this pool pulled out of the tournament. Machine sited logistical reasons for their no show..yaani wamesota. With Kenya poly mourning the loss of two of their fellow students a volleyball player and an track athlete, our heart felt condolences to the affected. The black shirts will play KCA first then face Multimedia university before closing day 1 action with what promises to be a titanic clash against the Wanyore.
KCB who bowed out of the Christies at the Main Cup semi stage are top seeds in Pool C, the green shirts are joined by hosts and Christie Plate finalists Kisumu, Eldoret RFC and a team that I have liked over the past two weekends the Stormers. KCB will be looking to better their performance from last week and get to the Main Cup final, but to do that they have to get past the above mentioned first. The Green shirts kick off their campaign against Eldoret, then face the Stormers before closing day 1 action against the hosts.
Pool D aka Pool of Death has Strathmore who made it to the Main Cup semi last weekend losing to the eventual winners, Christies 2012 Plate winners the Homeboyz and two of the bowl quarter finalists Impala and Daystar. This one will have no room for error for the four teams, more so for Impala who had a Christie sevens to forget. The red shirts will be looking to redeem themselves at the earliest opportunity and will have to show up this time round. The gazelles will have no grace period as they start their redemption against Strathmore, they then face the Homeboyz and finish Day 1 action against Daystar.
I wont go into the division two teams as much that will make this post a million words long, but Kisumu II and Busia RFC come in for KCA and Multimedia in Pool E who were promoted to division 1 as earlier mentioned.
Now to day 2, the winners and runners up of the division 1 pools will face each other in the main cup quarters. with Pool A winners facing the Pool B runners up, Pool C winners facing Pool D runners up. The third place finishers in the division 1 Pools will play in the bowl quarters with the same pairings followed, they will be joined by the pool winners from Division 2. The last place finishers in the division 1 pools will play in the Shield quarters with the second placed finishers in the Division two pools. The third and fourth place finishers will play in the spear category.
At the end of the two days, the points will be awarded as follows:
Main Cup winner - 22 points
Main Cup runners up - 19 points
Main Cup 3rd place - 17 points
Main Cup 4th place - 15 points
Plate winners - 13 points
Plate runners up - 12 points
Plate semi finalists - 10 points
Bowl winner - 8 points
Bowl finalist - 7 points
Bowl semi finalists - 5 points
Shield winner - 3 points
Shield runner up - 2 points
Shield semi finalists - 1 point
That is it for the Dala sevens, for those of us who will not be making the trip to the lakeside, there will be a different form of rugby action on Saturday, no it's not what you are thinking, it's touch rugby. The second edition of the B Quiniz touch challenge takes place this Saturday at the RFUEA grounds. The proceeds from this challenge will go into helping kids suffering from Cerebral palsy at the Kids inc. among other kids in need part of the proceeds will also be used in the kids Harlequins team. A worthy cause I must say...find more details from the below poster.
Finally, get your tuxedos out...yes ile ulivaa ukisimamia wedding ya ule Cousin wako, hiyo..The Elliptics awards are back after a two year absence, the awards are slated for Saturday 8 September 2012 at the Pride Inn, Westlands. This will be the second edition of the Elliptics awards, the first having taken place in 2010. For those who don't know the elliptics galla were started by the Ministry of Rugby as a way of recognising exceptional rugby personalities. The following categories will be awarded...
Elliptics MVP of the Year (Male)
Elliptics MVP of the Year (Female)
Elliptics Referee of the Year
Elliptics Director of the Year
Elliptics Team of the Year
Elliptics Best Audio Media
Elliptics Best Visual Media
Elliptics Best Print Media
Elliptics Rookie of the Year
Elliptics Coach of the Year
Elliptics School of the Year
Elliptics Fan of the Year
Elliptics Hall of Fame
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| This was 2010...na sa 2012 je? |
And with that ladies and gentlemen......
Dala sevens ochopo..ka in gi Probox ,kata Prado,riembane mondo ichop Kisumu city,kar chuny jaluo... Ruoth oritu to kikumer ahinya..beduru kung'eyo ni ukimwi chendo...motto for this weekend en No glove, no love!!
KWISHA!!!! nimeruka nje....