May The Champions Stand Up!

After 12 rounds of play across the leagues, we are finally left with 8 sides but only 4 spots of glory, this Saturday 4 championship matches are lined up at the Moi Sports Center Kasarani.

In the Chairman's league, the Daystar Falcons face Catholic university Monks in the first championship match of day. The two are very familiar with each other having played in the previous university league for several seasons, they were also drawn together this season in the University division of the Chairman's league. The Monks finished first in that division with the Falcons coming in second. Their meeting in the league phase ended with a narrow 15-12 score in the Monks favour. The Falcons under Kevin 'Bling' Wambua who also doubles up as the National ladies coach will be out for redemption and beat this Monks side when it really matters. In doing so, the Falcons will become only the second side to beat this Catholic side this season.

Catholic go into this one as favourites having trail blazed through this season, they have been close before, losing the University title to eventual winners Egerton at the Semi finals last season. They will be looking to finally get the trophy and promotion to the Nationwide, which according to them will be long overdue.

Eldoret RFC take on the Egerton Wasps in the 3'O clock kick off for the Nationwide title. This will be a true battle of East vs West, with Eldoret representing the latter. The Wasps are not new to championship games, having been in and won the University league final last season. They will be looking to emulate the performance of season past and earn a post to play with the big boys in the Kenya Cup. Egerton finished third in the Eastern Conference, beating all odds to dump pre tournament favourites Mombasa SC to book this final. Eldoret RFC on their finished top of the Western Conference, seeing off Kakamega II in the semi to reach here. The Rift side has only lost once and will be looking to end the season with that record intact.

The ESS pits together two sides that have dominated this league for a while now. The KCB cubs and the Arturos of Quins. The Cubs won this league in 2004 and 2008 and were runners up in the years in between, after this, Homeboyz happened, the Djs winning back to back titles in 2009 and 2010 paving way for the Arturos who have held fort since.

The Arturos taking on the Cubs in a previous fixture at the Den.

Predictably, the two finished in the first two places though with Quins II holding a huge point advantage. It is no longer news that Quins II hold the only surviving unbeaten run across the four leagues. It is also no secret that the Arturos go into this one as odd on favourites to defend their title, having already convincingly seen off the Catulus of Strathmore in the Semi final.

The Cubs know this Arturos side well, having fallen 21-25 to them at the den earlier in the season. They will be out to hand their opponents a first defeat in close to two years and emulate the class of 2008. Both these sides hold their clubs' only hopes of silverware (you wouldn't have believed that statement at the beginning of the season now would you?) this season so expect every blade of grass to be contested. This one kicks off at 1PM.

Before the big final, there will be the small matter of settling who comes in third in the top flight. This battle between the losing Semi Finalists KCB and Mwamba. KCB fell to Nakuru 21-7 with Mwamba   narrowly losing out to Strathmore 15-18 in the other Semi. It is these results that the two will be out to erase and put a happy ending to what were good runs for the both sides this season. For Kulabu that battle for fourth has to be the highlight of the campaign, beating Quins and making sure they made it to the Semi. For KCB there was a period early in the season, that they were unplayable, beating everyone in sight that was until they met Nakuru. The two can build on this season's performances despite the result here as they both have a young core of players.

To the big one, the one under the lights yaani chini ya mataa.. The Strathmore Leos taking on The Menengai Oil Nakuru RFC.

I don’t think we could have asked for a better final, two sides who have never won this trophy and are on the peak of their development. Historically, the two couldn't be further apart, with the Wanyore being one of the oldest sides in Kenya rugby, Strathmore on the other hand are younger than the current century. The two however have had a development cycle that almost match, having started close to four seasons ago when both started working in earnest towards this day.

Leos vs Nakuru at Madaraka (Photo Courtesy of Nakuru RFC)

History will however play a very little part, if any once center referee Godwin Karuga blows his whistle for the kick off, it will boil down to who wants it more. The Leos finished first in the league round, taking advantage of Nakuru's loss to Quins to pip their rivals by 2 points. It's hard to pick a favourite here, Nakuru head coach Eric Situma reckons the Leos are the favourites having finished top of the standings at the end of the league round. But it will be remembered that Situma's side edged out Strathmore 15-10 at Madaraka on game day 8 and by that they are also favourites.

I don't expect either tactician to change their mode of play this late on so I expect Strathmore to play their balls quick off the set pieces and wide looking to run the heavier Nakuru pack around the park. The Kasarani pitch which is short and wide favours them in this aspect, Kulabu utilized in parts this game play in their win over Quins here. Nakuru will have the upper hand in the forwards in terms of size and will be looking to use this to their advantage, this size advantage also trickles to the backs with the likes of Kelvin Omiyo and Oscar Ouma, who has been deployed on the wing for most parts of the season, will probably opt to carry the ball more often than not.Unless one side completely shuts down at some point this one will be a game of small margins, with probably the battle falling to the boots of the respective kickers.

Strathmore love to play Nakuru, especially in big matches, their worst result against them is a draw in a great rift 10's final a few years back. The last final that pitted the two was again at the Rift tens where the Leos romped to a 12-0 win. The Wanyore faithful will however point to the fact that this is 15's rugby..a whole different ball game.

This once again, too close to call but I will call a winning margin of 3 points.

Order Of Play

Chairman's Cup Final:

Daystar University vs Catholic University – 11:00 am.

Eric Shirley Shield Final:

Quins II vs KCB II – 1:00 pm.

Nation Wide Final:

Eldoret RFC vs Egerton University – 3:00 pm.

Kenya Cup 3^rd Place Play Off:

KCB vs Mwamba – 5:00 pm.

Kenya Cup Final:

Strathmore vs Menengai Oil Nakuru RFC – 7:00 pm

In other happenings, Dasani signed a 4 million sponsorship deal with the union to become the official water sponsors to all the union national teams.

The draw for the Hong Kong sevens was done Thursday afternoon, we are drawn in Pool B as follows:

Pool B:

New Zealand.

USA.

France.

Kenya.

Tricky looking pool, we meet the All blacks for the fourth time this season, this will definitely be the highlight as the Kiwis seek redemption after the Wellington loss. The mboys went back to training on Tuesday they now know what they will be facing.

To a topic I usually don't like venturing into, siasa and not the Cord Jubilee type that is dominant in these times. This time it's a common soap opera to any sport, that of Club vs Country.

Last Saturday Mwamba RFC chairman was involved in an almost bare knuckle word fight with the Kenya 7s head coach Big M, ON TWITTER!! I won't go into the details of the discussions that have gone on for the better part of the week, as I might show bias towards either side. 

My only concern is that this whole issue should have never...ever played out on social media the way it did and still is. I don't think arguing on Twitter solves anything, it only opens up to the market that social media is and now we already have every Tom, Dick, Stacy and Harry commenting on the issue and with great confidence too, individuals who are not stakeholders in the matter and really have no idea what is going on.

We have avenues of solving these issues discreetly and maintain the great image that this sport has in the country, lets not start going the football way of airing dirty linen in public, this is the gentleman’s game remember?

The debate that is Club vs Country will never end in sports, this is probably the umpteenth time in Kenya rugby, let this be an eye opener for the union and clubs to sit down and put in place Laws that will straighten out any grey areas, that we do not have such emotions boiling over next time.

Finally a happy birthday to Steve Sakwa of Homeboyz and a man I like calling Super man, Bill 'Lethal Man' Arigi..do enjoy Y'all!!

With that ladies and gents, enjoy the rugby at Kasarani, you might be back there for the Safari Sevens..hehe!

KWISHA.....Nimeruka Nje!!!!