Floodie Grand Finale Review

The curtains came down on the 31^st edition of the Impala Floodies this past weekend, with 3 titles up for grabs it was bound to be an explosive final weekend.

The 2012 Impala Floodlights Champions.

Mangu claimed their third title in as many years in the schools category, the defending champions battled past a stubborn Lenana side to get floodies title number 4. Well I should say they did well to hang on to a 3-0 final score, as they made that score early in the 1^st half. It was a cagey match for a good part of the 80 minutes pitting two sides that were evenly matched across the board.MVP in this category went to Benjamin Mutunga of MFA, with ChristopherChegeand Fredrick Odhiambo of Lenana School tacking back the accolades for Top try and points scorers back to Lenana.

The universities category saw USIU clinch the title from the jaws of Machine II at the death. The Kenyan Americans were first to the score board through a penalty before Machine II took the lead through an unconverted try to make it 5-3 going into the half time break. In that half, USIU had settled faster than their opponents but soon lost their grip on the game with Machine II growing in stature winning most of the 50-50’s they were unlucky not to have taken a larger lead into the break. The second half saw Machine stretch their lead to seven points at 10-3 courtesy of another unconverted try. USIU however were not going to let this one slide that easily, immediately getting back in touch through a try of their own to make it 10-8. Machine would grab their third unconverted try of the day to make it 15-8, at this point Machine II were looking good for the title, though they were guilty of some careless mistakes. USIU buoyed by their largely blonde fan base, that were shouting at every ruck in the 5 yard as if it were a try hehe..would start making head ways into Machine territory, reducing that deficit to 4 points via a penalty to make it 15-11. With the last play of the game, USIU with a ruck inside the Machine 22 would attack the shorter side with Tyson grounding the ball at the corner flag to hand his side the title and shutter Machine hearts. I don’t think they even bothered to convert, final score Machine II 15-16 USIU. Machine will be left to rue their missed chances, especially from the kicks but USIU will also point to some clear cut chances they failed to convert into points. The individual medleys went to WilbyeMbabu of USIU for top try scorer, Paul Mukua of Machine as Most promising player and Nathan Mwanza of USIU as MVP.

Some of the USIU players celebrating their win.

The clubs third place play off was an anti-climax of sorts, to all but the Nakuru fans and maybe Quins fans too. This one was over even before it started, Nakuru taking advantage of a largely clueless Impala side to take an 18-0 lead into the half, it could have been more. Nakuru were ruthless in attack racing to a 31-0 lead in the second half before Impala got their consolation via Anthony Nyandigisi to make it 31-5 before the Wanyore killed it off at 36-5. In Impala’s defence though (they didn’t have one on the day, hehe) seriously though gave a few new faces a run out and well I guess it upset the balance they had created over the last 2 weeks..

The big one did not disappoint one bit, defending champions and Floodies supremos Machine taking on Nondies for the magic number 10. Nondies had made their intentions clear that they will leave nothing to chance as they looked to end their 10 year drought. The red lions handing the experienced duo of Ronnie Mwenesi and Collins Kimani starts at 6 and 9. Machine on the other hand stuck to the 15 that got them here..After the moment of silence in honour of the Late Andrew Okwaro, we were off..

Nondies were quicker off the blocks, putting in the big hits early on,this pressure would get instant results for the rangers, Fidel Sineiputting the first points on the board off a penalty, 3-0.

Machine would however find their footing and run proceedings, winning a penalty inside their half opting to kick, and finding touch just short of the Nondies 5. They would win the ensuing line out and impressively mauling it over the line via EllyMukaisi, George Mutuku making no mistake from the conversion to make it 7-3. Nondies would however quickly get back into it through another Sinei penalty to make it 7-6 at the break. KanyiGitonga was definitely the angrier of the two coaches going into the break, his side had seen more of the ball but had failed to make it count.

The second half saw two Sinei penalties hand the red lions the lead at 12-7, it must be mentioned here that during this period Machine lost influential scrum half George Mutuku to a concussion this was starting to show as Machine looked to lose a little of the composure they had especially at the break downs. This however did not weigh immensely on the eschuma as they kept on throwing everything at Nondies, the red lions had succeeded in one thing in this half, slowing down the pace of the game and making sure that Machine played to their terms. Machine were however not to be denied and would get their second try of the game at the death through Kevin Gacheru, conversion unluckily going wide meaning that we would see an extra 15 minutes each way that is unless someone scored.

Nondies did not need the 15 minutes as within 5 minutes of the restart they kept the ball well putting together several phases. Machine doing their best to hold them off, the ball then swung wide to CalvinsBiko who had had a ‘knocky’ evening this far, finally catching the ball and showing the Machine defence a clean pair of heels to the line, doing a small jig inside the box before finally grounding the ball to the relief of the Nondies faithful. The 10 year wait was finally over and you could see from the celebrations.. At the end of the day, it was the experience of this Nondies side at crucial areas in the pitch that won them this one. The likes of Ben Nyambu, captain Joseph Wachira, and Derrick Wamalwa giving the experience coupled by the flair of the likes of Peter Lugano, Fidel Sinei, Alex Mutune gave them the edge over a very spirited Machine side.

Fidel Sinei took the MVP trophy, Impala’s Kelvin Karani taking the most promising player, Nakuru’s Martin Muita heading back to the rift with the top points scorer award with Kevin Gacheruof Machine taking the top try scorer trophy as consolation of sorts. 

Sinei receiving his MVP trophy from the Impala Chairman

A tip of the hat to the organisers for a great show over the three weeks, though with a few hiccups here and there with the live stream. It was a great tournament with a lot of firsts for Kenya Rugby, it can only get better.  Lesson learned from this one, “Twitter Works….”Hehe!

With Floodies done with, we now move into the new season as the Kenya Cup kicks off this weekend. Teams will be doing their final preparations for what is a long season ahead…more on this on Friday as clubs are yet to agree on the league structure.

Today see’s the return of the Yaka yard, as the sevens team gets back into training for the Dubai sevens...

Finally on the salams corner, belated birthday wishes to one Angie Nyokabi, I know you had a happy one..I was there! Also a happy birthday to Quins chairman, one Edward Kinyany..

With that Ladies and Gentlemen..have a fruitful week ahead aaannnndddd….

KWISHA…..NimerukaNje!!