The first weekend of the 2012 Airtel Impala floodlit
tournament took place amidst pomp and colour at the Impala grounds this
past weekend. On the cards, were 4 great matches in the Clubs category in what
turned out to be a night of upsets and come backs..
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| Action from the Ngong road derby (photo courtesy of KRU) |
To start off the clubs category, defending champions Machine faced bitter rivals Strathmore in another episode of the Universities derby. The lineups featured a few new faces with Leonard Mugaisi, Polycarp Odiambo and Emmanuel Mavala featuring for Machine, Peter Ocholla starting at 10 for Strathmore. Despite the new faces the passion in this one was never in doubt, Strathmore taking an early 6-0 lead through Ken Andola’s boot, the points coming off a penalty and drop goal. Eschuma would however go into the half time break with a one point lead through a Kevin Gacheru try and George Mutuku conversion. The defending champions came from the break with all cylinders firing, stretching that lead to 12-6 through Elphas Manya. The leos were slowly losing their grip on this one, with the defending champions happy to punish the XXVII crew. George Mutuku with a chairman’s contribution adding 10 points to that lead, from a penalty and conversion to his own try make it 22-6 with 10 minutes to play. By this time Strathmore had already closed the proverbial shop, Anthony Ngera’s try driving the last nail in the Leos coffin, with George Mutuku taking his tally for this game to 14 and final score to 29-6. Machine’s title defence and Floodies mojo are well alive for another week..
The second quarter final was the battle of the lions, KCB
taking on Nondies. Last year’s finalists KCB were looking to put things right
this year and first up were the red lions. Nondies on the other hand were
making a rare appearance under the Impala floodlights and were looking to get
one over their fellow lions who have had the better of them over the recent past.
The red lions line up featured 2 former KCB players in Derrick Wamalwa and
Calvins Biko, theNondies technical bench also handing former Machine captain
Cedric Odera his debut. KCB’s line up featured several debutants in the first
team with Bonab Were, Stephen Wakaya and Ojoe Jacob being handed starts,
Salamba having to make his 15s debut for KCB from the bench.
The game started off with Nondies quicker off the blocks winning a penalty that Brian Beckham succesfully kicked over. Before KCB realised what had hit them , Sam Muchai crossed over the line to stretch that lead to 8-0. KCB would finally get into the game, with Ojoe capping his debut with a try, Bonab Were converting to narrow the gap 8-7. The green lions would take the lead into the break, Xavier Makuba grounding the ball off a rolling maul to make it 12-8 at the break. The second half saw Nondies come at the green lions with all they had, Fidel Sinei making it a one point game from a penalty at 11-12. Peter Mutai who had moved to fly half for KCB giving his side some breathing space with a penalty and a sensational drop goal minutes later to make it 11-18. Sinei would increase his tally with a penalty to narrow the gap to 4 points at 18-14. With time quickly running out, it looked like the green lions would hold onto this slight lead despite the red simba’s relentless pressure, Sinei though had other ideas grounding the ball and converting his try to hand the Jamuhuri park side the 21-18 win.
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| Action from the KCB vs Nondies game (Photo courtesy of KRU) |
The game started off with Nondies quicker off the blocks winning a penalty that Brian Beckham succesfully kicked over. Before KCB realised what had hit them , Sam Muchai crossed over the line to stretch that lead to 8-0. KCB would finally get into the game, with Ojoe capping his debut with a try, Bonab Were converting to narrow the gap 8-7. The green lions would take the lead into the break, Xavier Makuba grounding the ball off a rolling maul to make it 12-8 at the break. The second half saw Nondies come at the green lions with all they had, Fidel Sinei making it a one point game from a penalty at 11-12. Peter Mutai who had moved to fly half for KCB giving his side some breathing space with a penalty and a sensational drop goal minutes later to make it 11-18. Sinei would increase his tally with a penalty to narrow the gap to 4 points at 18-14. With time quickly running out, it looked like the green lions would hold onto this slight lead despite the red simba’s relentless pressure, Sinei though had other ideas grounding the ball and converting his try to hand the Jamuhuri park side the 21-18 win.
The third Quarter final saw last season’s kenya cup runners
up Nakuru face Blakblad who will be making their Kenya cup come back in the
coming season. It was a good opportunity for Tank’s side to gauge their
preparations ahead of the season. The blad started off better than their
opponents, and were rewarded from a penalty to take 3-0 lead. Nakuru would
immediately get back with a penalty of their own, Blakblad would reclaim the
lead for the last time in this match at 6-3 from another penalty. The wanyore
would lead for the first time in this match through an unconverted try at 8-6
before making another, this time converted to take a 15-6 lead into the half
time break. Blad started off the second half as they did the first, with a
penalty to make it a 6 point game at 15-9. This would however be last score for
the Kenyatta university side as Nakuru completely took over proceedings to romp
to a 34-9 final score. The Wanyore would now face Nondies in next weekend’s semi finals. Blad have many positives to take from this
one, it was the experience of Nakuru that was the difference between the two sides, blad played with a great structure and as always pure heart, with a few
tweaks they will be a tough nut in the season.
The big one of the day was definitely the ngong road
derby..and this one did not dissapoint one bit, do they ever? Quins came into
this one as the odd on favourites, looking at the line ups the lunch bars had
12 Kenya internationals at their disposal, including Kenya 7’s duo of Dennis
Muhanji and Partrice Agunda who made the starting 15. Impala on the other hand,
welcomed back a couple of key players in particular Anthony Oyugi who was
featuring in his first 15’s match in close to a year. Kevin Gisore, Joshua
Momanyi among the welcomed additions.Impala had not beaten Quins in a while and
were looking to turn this bit of stat and bring back the old days. Impala looked the better of the two sides in
the early exchanges though this period remained cagey as the two sides weighed
each other up. The weighing part does not imply in any way that either team held anything back, it was Impala though that looked the more promising of the two and indeed it was the gazelles who took the lead just before the half, Anthony Oyugi marking his come back with a try. The score board reading Impala 5-0 Quins at the break.
The second half saw Quins pick up the tempo but would shoot themselves down with uncharacteristic errors. This is taking nothing away from Impala who defended resolutely and kept the quartered shirts at bay. It was however Impala who would add to their score with Anthony Nyandigisi going over to make it 10-0. The game looked to be slipping away from Quins' grip as Impala grew in stature with the clock winding down. This is Quins we are talking about, you write them off at your own peril. Isaac Adimo kicking over the quarterd shirts first points of the game through a penalty to make it a 7 point game. Quins sensing a late come back would finally come to the ball game, camping inside the Impala 22. Again Impala would hold them out, that was until Chris Oduor skipped through a couple of tackles to ground the ball just to the left of the posts with the last play of the game. It was now on Dennis Muhanji's boot to level the game and take it to extra time. Personally, and I think I speak for mosts of us 'neutrals' (and Quins fans) that a little part of us wanted the kick to go in so we could enjoy another 30 minutes of this action. But as we all know by now Muhanji drove his kick wide before the buzzer's sound filled the air to end that game, 10-8. Deservedly so Impala claiming their first win in the Ngong road derby in a while, and you could tell it by the celebrations. Impala will now face defending champions Machine in the second semi final.
The Kenya sevens team to Australia finally departed after a few hicups, first they lost their kit bags, think the bags fell off the team bus enroute to the airport (Whoever picked them up is one lucky bastard or rather a group of lucky bastards hehe). Then on reaching the JKIA, they were to board a KQ flight to Bangkok, this however was cancelled due to the pilots go slow. Eventually, they did manage to catch a flight, this time to Dubai yesterday evening. Arrived safely in Dubai, waited 4 hours to get one flight to Melbourne via Singapore and as I post this they arrived at Singapore and are now heading to Melbourne. Tough start to the journey as the boys are now close to two days behind schedule, might look gloomy now but I'm sure the guys will raise above this and give us one hell of a showing at the Gold Coast sevens. By the way, this is not the first time Kenya 7s have lost kit bags before a tournament..think it also happened before the World cup...and look how far we got that time, this is a sign people!!
More on the sevens in Friday's post, but I'll tell you this much..get as much sleep as you can right now, arrange sleep overs, start sleep training yourself preferably with intervals of three hours cause the local timings for this one are true 'masaa ya wachawi' as they always are...here:
1. England vs Kenya 3:30 am
2. Samoa vs Kenya 6:58 am
3. Spain vs Kenya 10:02 am
With that ladies and gents... A big congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Lavin Asego.... and before I forget a happy belated birthday to the one player that has played for more clubs than any other and is indeed the only player to have featured for all 4 core franchises in the BRSS..Daktari John 'Meso' Ahenda may you live to see your secret dream of playing for all clubs in Kenya come to pass..hehe!
KWISHA.....Nimeruka Nje!!!!!!
The second half saw Quins pick up the tempo but would shoot themselves down with uncharacteristic errors. This is taking nothing away from Impala who defended resolutely and kept the quartered shirts at bay. It was however Impala who would add to their score with Anthony Nyandigisi going over to make it 10-0. The game looked to be slipping away from Quins' grip as Impala grew in stature with the clock winding down. This is Quins we are talking about, you write them off at your own peril. Isaac Adimo kicking over the quarterd shirts first points of the game through a penalty to make it a 7 point game. Quins sensing a late come back would finally come to the ball game, camping inside the Impala 22. Again Impala would hold them out, that was until Chris Oduor skipped through a couple of tackles to ground the ball just to the left of the posts with the last play of the game. It was now on Dennis Muhanji's boot to level the game and take it to extra time. Personally, and I think I speak for mosts of us 'neutrals' (and Quins fans) that a little part of us wanted the kick to go in so we could enjoy another 30 minutes of this action. But as we all know by now Muhanji drove his kick wide before the buzzer's sound filled the air to end that game, 10-8. Deservedly so Impala claiming their first win in the Ngong road derby in a while, and you could tell it by the celebrations. Impala will now face defending champions Machine in the second semi final.
The Kenya sevens team to Australia finally departed after a few hicups, first they lost their kit bags, think the bags fell off the team bus enroute to the airport (Whoever picked them up is one lucky bastard or rather a group of lucky bastards hehe). Then on reaching the JKIA, they were to board a KQ flight to Bangkok, this however was cancelled due to the pilots go slow. Eventually, they did manage to catch a flight, this time to Dubai yesterday evening. Arrived safely in Dubai, waited 4 hours to get one flight to Melbourne via Singapore and as I post this they arrived at Singapore and are now heading to Melbourne. Tough start to the journey as the boys are now close to two days behind schedule, might look gloomy now but I'm sure the guys will raise above this and give us one hell of a showing at the Gold Coast sevens. By the way, this is not the first time Kenya 7s have lost kit bags before a tournament..think it also happened before the World cup...and look how far we got that time, this is a sign people!!
More on the sevens in Friday's post, but I'll tell you this much..get as much sleep as you can right now, arrange sleep overs, start sleep training yourself preferably with intervals of three hours cause the local timings for this one are true 'masaa ya wachawi' as they always are...here:
1. England vs Kenya 3:30 am
2. Samoa vs Kenya 6:58 am
3. Spain vs Kenya 10:02 am
With that ladies and gents... A big congratulations to Mr. & Mrs. Lavin Asego.... and before I forget a happy belated birthday to the one player that has played for more clubs than any other and is indeed the only player to have featured for all 4 core franchises in the BRSS..Daktari John 'Meso' Ahenda may you live to see your secret dream of playing for all clubs in Kenya come to pass..hehe!
KWISHA.....Nimeruka Nje!!!!!!