This past weekend saw the third round of the National sevens circuit, the Prinsloo sevens take place in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru. With the top teams missing their star players to the national sevens camp there was bound to be a power shift in the offing. Day 1 did not see much in the way of surprises with the usual suspects having enough to see them to the Main Cup quarter finals.
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| The 2012 Prinsloo Champions. |
Action on Day 1 was mainly in the pool of death, Machine starting off on the right footing after seeing of Homeboyz 26-7 with Nakuru making easy meat of Nondies to win 24-0. The next set of games saw Nondies lose to the Homeboyz 19-10 and see their hopes fizzle out, Nakuru narrowly got past Machine 10-5 and met the Homeboyz for the pool decider. This was preceeded by the match between Machine and Nondies with Machine still having a slight chance of making it to the Main cup Quarters depending on the final match. Machine did all they could by winning this one 15-7, now all they had to do was wait and cross their fingers. In the final match Homeboyz were leading 12-5 with precious little time on the clock, as it stood, Machine were through to the Quarters. But it was not to be, as Nakuru managed to tie the game 12 ups with the last play to ensure that they made it to the Main Cup competition. Homeboyz and Machine dropped to the bowl with Nondies playing it out for the Shield.
Nakuru were joined in the Main Cup by Quins from Pool A, Mwamba from Pool B, KCB from Pool C, Strathmore from Pool D and Impala from Pool E as Pool winners. The Circuit leaders making it to the Cup competition after seeing off Eldoret 12-0, Daystar 24-7 and Kakamega 31-0 in Pool A. The defending champions Kulabu also having a smooth path to the Cup with 22-5,24-7 and 17-0 wins over Molo, Thika and Stormers in that order. KCB had a slight scare in their second game in Pool C when they scrapped through BlakBlad 12-10, the other results were 29-0 over M.M.U and 29-5 over KCA. Strathmore started their route to the Cup with a 56-0 rout over Masaku, they followed this up with an almost similar 52-0 win over Bungoma and a 20-7 win over Kisumu. Impala also had a smooth ride in Pool D, registering 26-7, 40-5 and 17-0 wins over Catholic, Comras and the Western Bulls. The other two quarter finalists were Kisumu and BlakBlad who made it as the best two runner ups.
The rankings after Day 1 produced the following pairings.
Main Cup Quarters:
Strath vs BlakBlad
KCB vs Mwamba
Impala vs Kisumu
Quins vs Nakuru
Bowl Quarters:
Daystar vs Comras
Stormers vs Homeboyz
Western Bulls vs Kakamega
Machine vs Thika
Shield Quarters
Multimedia vs Bungoma
Nondies vs Catholic
Masaku vs Molo
KCA vs Eldoret
Day 2 in Nakuru saw some farmiliar pairings but the one that stood out was the Quarter final match between KCB and Mwamba. It would be the third time these two would meet in as many legs, the other two times being in the Main Cup semi finals for the Christies and Dala sevens. On both occassions Mwamba emerged victorious the second win being after sudden death. It was also the second time Quins were meeting Nakuru at a cup quarter final Quins having won the previous meeting.
Onto the games, Strathmore easily saw off Blad 31-0 with Kisumu beating Impala 14-7. Nakuru gained sweet revenge over Quins beating the quartered shirts 10-0. KCB kept the revenge theme going, finally getting past Mwamba 15-5 on the third time of asking. This win meant that we were going to see a new Prinsloo champion and a different Cup winner other than Quins for the first time this season, question was who was it going to be?
In the Bowl, Daystar overcame the Comras 17-5, Homeboyz running 33 past Stormers, Macine replicating that score against Thika with the Bulls beating Kakamega 24-5. In the Shield Bungoma beat Multimedia 12-5 with Nondies edging past Catholic 14-7 Molo beating Masaku 21-0 and Eldoret beating KCA 22-5.
With the above results the Semi Finalists were paired as follows:
Shield Semis:
Bungoma vs Nondies
Molo vs Eldoret
Bowl Semis:
Daystar vs Homeboyz
Machine vs Western Bulls
Plate Semis:
Quins vs Impala
Mwamba vs BlakBlad
Main Cup
Strathmore vs KCB
Kisumu vs Nakuru
In the Shield Nondies walloped Bungoma 40-5 to set up a final berth against Eldoret RFC who saw off Molo RFC 12-7. In the Bowl, Homeboyz survived a scare from Daystar University to eventually win 12-10, the big Semi saw Machine edge out the Western Bulls 12-5. The Plate had some mouth watering encounters with the Ngong road derby, and a match that has always been a great encounter especially in the early 90’s Mwamba taking on Blakblad.
The first semi was tied 7 ups at the half with little to choose between the two, only for the flood gates to open for Quins to take the game 24-7. Blakblad took the early lead against Mwamba and kept it that way at 7-0 going into the half. Kulabu would put up a great fight in the second half but would eventually go down 12-14.
In the Main Cup hosts Nakuru were in cruise control in their semi seeing off Kisumu 24-7, the Wanyore taking a 10-0 lead into the break. Kisumu would get their consolation but it was too little too late for the Kondele boys. In the other semi, KCB would finally end their wait to play in a cup final after falling short in the last two occassionsnat this very stage. The lions had to get past a stubborn leos side who had held them 5 all at the break. The second half saw the lions in green take the match 22-12 to make it third time lucky for the thika road side.
The Final rounds were preceeded by rains that pounded the N.A.C making the games abit more tactical than they had been earlier in the day. First up was Nondies taking on Eldoret for the Shield title, Nondies took a 5-0 lead into the break and scored further stretched that lead to 10-0 to take the Shield title.
In the Bowl, Homeboyz met Machine in what promised to be a great final..and indeed it was. Homeboyz went into the half with the narrow 7-5 lead. The Djs would hold onto that lead and went ahead to stretch it and take the Bowl title 12-5.
Kenya Harlequins found themselves outside the main cup final for the first time in this year’s Circuit but in a Final none the less. Blakblad were making their first appearance at the Plate Final this sevens season and were looking to make it first time lucky. Quins took the lead going into the break at 5-0, but the Blad dug deep to level the game 5 all with the final buzzer having gone. The game would then go into sudden death with Quins finding their mojo to make the score that ensured they left Nakuru with the Plate as consolation, 12-5 the final score.
The two sides in the Main Cup final were making their season debuts at this stage, KCB having come the closest with two semi final finishes. Nakuru on the other hand had to endure a poor showing at the Christies before reaching the plate semis in Dala and were now on the verge of a Main Cup title. The Wanyore were looking to their home support to take them past the Lions, you know what they say,"A Mnyore never gets beaten at home!" KCB on the other hand were banking on their impecable form escpecially on Day 2 that had seen them brush past Mwamba and Strathmore to get here.
The game itself unfortunately for the Wanyore was nowhere near close with the Lions ripping them apart at will. Oliver Mangeni was first to put his name on the score board for the Lions, making it 5-0. The Lions would however have their real first scare of the game with Ian Indimuli seeing yellow, quite impressively the Lions managed to hold off the wanyore and stretch that lead to 17-0 courtesy of a brace from Darwin Mukidza going into the break. KCB picked up from where they left in the first half with Dennis Mwanja burging to the line to make it 24-0. Ian Indimuli would make up for his mistake earlier with a try to bring the score to 31-0, before Mwita put the icing and the cherry on the KCB cake to bring the final score to 36-0. It was finally the bankers’ turn to pop the champagne after falling short on the last two occassions, I guess that saying should now be “A Mnyore will most likely not lose at home..” hehe!
The Tournament’s Individual accolades were awarded as follows:
Top Try Scorer (s) - Calvin Otieno (Nakuru), Samuel Mutari (Strathmore)
M.V.P – Darwin Mukidza (KCB)
Team Spirit award – Mean Machine RFC.
This win sees KCB leap frog Mwamba into second position on the overall log on 67 points, Quins are just a point ahead of KCB with Kulabu on 52 points. Strathmore are fourth on 48, Kisumu and Nakuru are tied 5th on 43. More on the rankings when we do the preview to Kabeberi..but Machine did score their first points of the season.
Finally on the Prinsloo, as I had predicted this was the best one of the lot. It is great to see how far Nakuru has come, Kudos to the organizers…Well in!!!
In other happenings over the weekend, the Kenya U-19 side managed to stay in Pool A of the CAR U-19 championship with a 22-10 win over Tunisia on Saturday. Namibia took the title beating Zimbabwe 44-23.
Next up, the caravan that is the National Sevens circuit makes it’s way back to the Capital for the Kabeberi sevens at the weekend, this one promises to be another thriller.
The elliptic awards are just around the corner and with 2000 bob and your black tie you can witness the best of Keenya rugby being awarded. You can also vote here www.ministryofrugby.com or send a text to 7955 with the words "Elliptics".
Also the countdown to Africa’s premier sevens tournament The Safaricom Safari Sevens has began..16 days to go!!
With that ladies and Gents….have a murwa week ahead, aaaannnnnnddddddddd……
KWISHA…nimeruka nje!!!!
P.S If you have a friend at the Kenya sevens camp please find time to whisper, text, inbox, the words “Yaka Yard” hehe and tell me how it goes…..