The Christie Sevens Review.

It was two days of top flight sevens rugby as the national cicuit kicked off with the Christie sevens at the RFUEA and Impala grounds. There was not much to write home about on day 1 as the boys were separated from the men. The following were the 8 that made it to the main cup quarters. Quins, Mwamba, KCB, Strathmore, Nondies, Nakuru, Kisumu and Homeboyz. The top 3 were impecable in Day 1 action seeing off their opponents without much struggle, Mwamba more impressively went through Day 1 without conceding a single point. KCB and Quins were only breached once. Nakuru had to shake  off an early scare in game 1 from the Stormers after going down  14-7 at the half before winning that one 26-14. The wanyore went forth and won the next two matches the last one a notable 17-14 win over Impala, the gazelles had not been impressive this far. Other notable results from day 1 were Nondies edging out Homeboyz 19-17 with Strathmore  getting past Kisumu, just, 10-7 and KCB brushing aside Machine with a 26-0 score.

Day 1 was also the day of the debutants with Nato Simiyu and Felix Ayange turning out for Quins, George Okowa for Impala with Edwin Salamba wearing the green of KCB. Kelvin Omiyo was back to familiar territory when he dawned the new Nakuru kit with another ‘prodigal son’ Ken Isindu in the familiar green of KCB. I am sure I have missed a few names in here...

Impala in Day 1 action.

With the gold now separated from the sand, the day 2 pairings were as follows:

Christie Sevens Day Two Pairings

Shield Quarters

Multimedia v Mt. Kenya
KCA v Oryx
Webuye v Bungoma
Catholic Univ v Thika

Bowl Quarters

Impala v Blackblad
Eldoret v Daystar
W. Bulls v Stormers
Machine v Kenya Poly

Main Cup Quarters
Quins v Homeboys
Strathmore v Nondies
Mwamba v Kisumu
KCB v Nakuru

In the Shield, Multimedia beat MKU 42-14 with KCA seeing off Oryx 14-7, Bungoma beating Webuye in the western derby 26-5 to set up a semi final berth against Catholic university who saw off Thika 26-10. MKU meeting KCA in the other semi with the College of Accountancy winning the math 7-5, to set up a final against CUEA after the latter beat Bungoma 26-7. The Shield was eventually won by the Catholic University of East Africa 7-5.

Impala found themselves in unfamiliar territory when they were relegated to the bowl after what was a wanting Day 1 performance. Their misery was further compounded when they went down to Blackblad 17-12 and were bundled out of the tournament all together. In the other quarter final matches, Eldoret beat Daystar 19-0, Western Bulls saw off the spirited Stormers 20-0, with Machine bamboozling Kenya Polytechnic 45-0. In the Semis, Blad went on to beat Eldoret 19-12, Western Bulls winning the other Semi 14-5 against Machine. Western bulls were crowned Bowl winners after beating Blackblad 19-12.

In the big boys league, Homeboyz were had for lunch by the flawless Lunch bar Quins 48-7 in the stand out result of the Quarter finals. Strathmore saw off Nondies 12-5, Mwamba beating Kisumu 29-7 and KCB beating Nakuru 12-0. This set up pretty mouth watering encounters in the plate and main Cup semi finals. Let's start with the plate where Homeboyz came up against Nondies for the second time in the tournament. The Djs had lost the first match 19-17 and were out for revenge with a place at the finals at the Plate final at stake. The Djs made no mistake this time round, seeing off the white shirts 21-7. The other final spot was booked by Kisumu after they edged off a lackluster Nakuru side 19-17. In the final, the Kondele boys were edged out 19-17 by Homeboyz.

In the Main Cup Semis Quins came up against Strathmore while KCB faced Mwamba in a replay of last year's final. Strathmore failed to breach the Quins defense in the 14 minutes played eventually going down 27-0. KCB had beaten Mwamba to claim the 2011 Christie title, they were looking to repeat this feat and set up a final with Quins. This was however not the case as Mwamba earned sweet revenge over the bankers beating them 12-0 and set up the dream final.

Mwamba drew first blood through their mercurial winger Collins Injera but Quins were quick to reply through Patrice Agunda to tie the scores at 5 all. Mwamba would take the lead one more time with E.Abere's try successfully converted by Lavin Asego to make it 12-5 to the black shirts. New boys Felix Ayange and Nato Simiyu made their mark on the game with the latter converting the earlier's try to make the score 12 all at the break.

The second half was all Quins, as the quartered shirts making 3 tries, Ayange claiming his second of the game with Omuka and Kopondo scoring the other two tries to end the game 31-12 to the hosts. With that win Quins send a message of intent to their rivals, the lunch bars looked really good through the two days. Its not really back to the drawing board to the others just a few shake ups here and there for the top 4 sides and they should give the early pace setters a good run for their money.

A cause of concern for Nakuru and Impala as the two looked pretty casual especially on day 1 and struggled against teams that they should really have comfortably beaten on their day. All in all going by what I've seen from the first leg, this one looks like its going to be a pretty competitive sevens season. 
  

Next up we have the Dala sevens at the Kisumu Polytechnic grounds, Quins have been seeded first in the 32 team tournament. The teams are divided into 8 pools of four with four of the pools in tier 1 and the other 4 in tier 2. More on the intricacies of how the teams will proceed onto day 2 action when I do the preview to the Dala Sevens.

With that ladies and gents....have a great week ahead aaannnndddd.....

KWISHA!!! Nimeruka nje...    

P.S There were some issues with guys accessing the blog from china oh sorry mobile devices, I trust those issues have been sorted. If not please do tell so that I can allow access via 1g devices and below hehe..