Lets get to the rugby,10 teams from what I know, have so far confirmed their participation in the weekend's extravaganza and they are :
1. Mwamba RFC
2. Kenya Harlequins
3. Blak Blad
4. Daystar University
5. Multi-media University
6. Thika RFC
7. Masaku RFC
8. Portland Stormers - Athi River
9. Team Quicks
10. Parklands Underdogs
The first 5 are household names in the local scene, the other 5 are basically teams constituted to play the tourney, well apart from Masaku which is set to be a fully functional rugby club at some point. It doesn't look like it will be a showcase of the best rugby around, most of the top teams are expected to field second or even third string sides, as the creme of the crop will be finishing up preparations for the National sevens circuit that starts on the 11th. Or they can use this as a warm up of sorts, then we can have a real competition on our hands. Maybe some of the players who have been called up to the National sevens camp will get a chance to turn up for their respective clubs, or maybe form a team..I don't know. But this will be highly unlikely as the players got into camp on Wednesday evening...I'm getting ahead of myself here back to Masaku. With 10 teams it will be a bit tricky for the organizers to pool the sides, it will be interesting to see how they pull it off, but I'm sure it's going to be a tournament to remember. In Kamba we say.."kikethiwa kyathe kya ukai muone..." loosely translating to It will be a ceremony that you have to witness..
To the National sevens team, Mike Friday contract officially started on the 1st of August which is when a certain number of players checked into the Moi international sports center Kasarani for residential camp. The number and identity of the players will be revealed later today by the union, but just to let the cat's whiskers off the bag, AAA is back among a host of other new faces. The players were obviously picked based on recent form or rather the recent past, seeing as the technical bench would not have enough time to prepare the team for the new HSBC sevens season if they were to assemble a team immediately after the local circuit. More on this after the union officially releases the details...
Speaking of releases, the IRB released the overall statistical review of the 2011/2012 HSBC season, if you are as much interested as I am in stats then you should know this by now. Kenya's season was summarised as follows:
1. Average Points Scored - 14
2. Average Points Conceded - 18
3. Try scoring rate - 96 secs
4. Try Conceding Rate - 77 secs
5. Conversion Success rate - 64%
6. Total tries scored - 114
34% of the tries were scored from Penalties, 28% from Turn overs which was the highest among the core teams, and 1% from lineouts which predictably was the lowest in the series. Most of our tries originated from our own half, 55% to be precise which initially indicates that we prefer building up from deep. Until you come across the stat that says that 61% of our tries were made off 3 or less passes which goes on to show that we have strong runners or maybe one or two people who can run that we usually pass to. Another stat that caught my eye was that 70% of our tries came from plays that had no ruck, while we conceded 71% of our tries from plays which had ruck situations, we really don't like set plays now do we? We had an average ball possession of 49% averaging 9.6 passes a minute, the best pass rate was 10.6 passes a minute by Samoa, the ball hogs or rather team with the most possession, were S.A at 54%.
Back to rucks, we averaged 2.6 of them a minute with an 82% success rate at our own rucks, not bad considering the best was 89% and the average ruck rate was 2.4 a minute. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on what our game plan was if our aim was to run the ball then we did badly, but if it was to set up platforms for attack then we did ok on the platform part. Looking at the stat on 'try sources' I bet our game play was the latter...The other stat on rucks was on the numbers committed, we mostly had 1 player in the rucks whether on attack (91%) or defence (69%), goes to support my 'thesis' on us not liking rucks. If there is anything, according to the stats that the team hated more than rucks it must be lineouts, I already mentioned that we made a mere 1% of our tries from them, now we had a 53% success rate at our own throw at the lineouts..the lowest in the series.
I can go on and on with the numbers, najua kuna watu wamelenga hiyo part ju ya kichwa ku uma..hehe for those who haven't seen the document you can find it here..IRB Stats on the HSBC 2011/2012 Season go through it and lets compare notes. Just one more stat before I move on, Kenya were the most penalised side in the season, receiving a total of 11 cards, 4 from a ruck (told you we don't like them), 2 for unsportsman like behaviour, 2 for deliberate knock-ons, 2 for not being 10 meters at a penalty and 1 for a dangerous tackle. That we definately need to work on..
Back to Masaku here's a list of pointers, when in mayakos!
1. Try samosa sya T-tot, prefferably on Sunday Morning..
2. Make sure you drink kaluvu...that is the local kamba brew...
3. Gentlemen do not scoop any girl you see..ukikwama inside usiseme hukuambiwa..lol!
4. The sun rises at 5 am, so don't wake up at 6 am ukimbie golf club ati umechelewa game.
5. Gentlemen, Machakos is the Nyeri of kamba land, chunga usigongwe.
6. It's usually pretty hot during the days...and cold at night, Campers be warned.
With the above and a few more that you'll have to see me kando...you will enjoy your weekend at the mayakos coundy...
NOU NIKYA THELA!!!
To the National sevens team, Mike Friday contract officially started on the 1st of August which is when a certain number of players checked into the Moi international sports center Kasarani for residential camp. The number and identity of the players will be revealed later today by the union, but just to let the cat's whiskers off the bag, AAA is back among a host of other new faces. The players were obviously picked based on recent form or rather the recent past, seeing as the technical bench would not have enough time to prepare the team for the new HSBC sevens season if they were to assemble a team immediately after the local circuit. More on this after the union officially releases the details...
Speaking of releases, the IRB released the overall statistical review of the 2011/2012 HSBC season, if you are as much interested as I am in stats then you should know this by now. Kenya's season was summarised as follows:
1. Average Points Scored - 14
2. Average Points Conceded - 18
3. Try scoring rate - 96 secs
4. Try Conceding Rate - 77 secs
5. Conversion Success rate - 64%
6. Total tries scored - 114
34% of the tries were scored from Penalties, 28% from Turn overs which was the highest among the core teams, and 1% from lineouts which predictably was the lowest in the series. Most of our tries originated from our own half, 55% to be precise which initially indicates that we prefer building up from deep. Until you come across the stat that says that 61% of our tries were made off 3 or less passes which goes on to show that we have strong runners or maybe one or two people who can run that we usually pass to. Another stat that caught my eye was that 70% of our tries came from plays that had no ruck, while we conceded 71% of our tries from plays which had ruck situations, we really don't like set plays now do we? We had an average ball possession of 49% averaging 9.6 passes a minute, the best pass rate was 10.6 passes a minute by Samoa, the ball hogs or rather team with the most possession, were S.A at 54%.
Back to rucks, we averaged 2.6 of them a minute with an 82% success rate at our own rucks, not bad considering the best was 89% and the average ruck rate was 2.4 a minute. Whether that is a good or bad thing depends on what our game plan was if our aim was to run the ball then we did badly, but if it was to set up platforms for attack then we did ok on the platform part. Looking at the stat on 'try sources' I bet our game play was the latter...The other stat on rucks was on the numbers committed, we mostly had 1 player in the rucks whether on attack (91%) or defence (69%), goes to support my 'thesis' on us not liking rucks. If there is anything, according to the stats that the team hated more than rucks it must be lineouts, I already mentioned that we made a mere 1% of our tries from them, now we had a 53% success rate at our own throw at the lineouts..the lowest in the series.
I can go on and on with the numbers, najua kuna watu wamelenga hiyo part ju ya kichwa ku uma..hehe for those who haven't seen the document you can find it here..IRB Stats on the HSBC 2011/2012 Season go through it and lets compare notes. Just one more stat before I move on, Kenya were the most penalised side in the season, receiving a total of 11 cards, 4 from a ruck (told you we don't like them), 2 for unsportsman like behaviour, 2 for deliberate knock-ons, 2 for not being 10 meters at a penalty and 1 for a dangerous tackle. That we definately need to work on..
Back to Masaku here's a list of pointers, when in mayakos!
1. Try samosa sya T-tot, prefferably on Sunday Morning..
2. Make sure you drink kaluvu...that is the local kamba brew...
3. Gentlemen do not scoop any girl you see..ukikwama inside usiseme hukuambiwa..lol!
4. The sun rises at 5 am, so don't wake up at 6 am ukimbie golf club ati umechelewa game.
5. Gentlemen, Machakos is the Nyeri of kamba land, chunga usigongwe.
6. It's usually pretty hot during the days...and cold at night, Campers be warned.
With the above and a few more that you'll have to see me kando...you will enjoy your weekend at the mayakos coundy...
NOU NIKYA THELA!!!
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