After the first class performance in
Wellington, nothing had prepared us for what is a USA sevens to forget. Some
would argue that they saw it coming but in all honesty no one saw this. It
looked like the ghosts of last season had come back to haunt us in Vegas. This
leg serves as a reminder of just what a young team we are in the development
cycle, and how tight things are in the series. When we have used that last line
(Things are tight in the series) we have always been on the right side of
things, not this time.
 |
| Oscar in Action vs Canada (Photo courtesy of IRB) |
We really never turned up in Vegas, when we
did show sparks of what we were capable of, like in the first half against
France, we quickly crumbled. So what went wrong? I'd attribute our performance
to mainly three things, the weight of expectation, fatigue and probably the
weather.
At Wellington, the true potential of this
squad finally seen by all as we headed into Vegas the weight of expectation and
the euphoria probably got to the mboys, the little voices in their heads came
creeping in. We have one of the most hectic travel schedules among the core
teams, to get to Wellington for instance, travelled for close to 4 days. We did
exceptionally well in NZ under the circumstances, though the two sudden death
matches we played at the end meant our 'fatigue debt' was at an all time high.
This one can be easily solved easily, with a little more injection of resources
we can arrive early enough to fight off the jet lag.
Finally the weather, it was freezing cold
in Nevada, thus the air was much thicker than we are used to. If you couple
that with the fatigue I mentioned, you get the dull looking side we saw in
Vegas. This one can be handled in two ways, the first being early travel and
two changing our training locations to suit the places we will be travelling
to, probably have camps in high altitude, like our track athletes.
Some of the other things are basically
adopting to situations for example against South Africa, we kept on playing the
ball deep inside our territory even though clearly this was not working. A good
territorial kick would have taken the pressure off, I know that we would be
risking possession but at that point it
really didn’t matter. Against Canada, we opted to pound away at their defence which
has been working great for us this far but the Canadians had us this time
defending resolutely. Why not switch it up, go round them, or quick off loads
once into contact? I am no coach but I guess what am saying is we need a new
dimension to our play a plan B of sorts.
We slip to 6th on 56 points, if
you had told me at the beginning of the season that we'd be this far at this
point, it would have sounded like a dream. Two semi finals and a final is no
mean feat, we now prepare for Hong Kong and Tokyo in March. I can almost put my
head on the line and state here that, this is the season that we win our first
main cup title..
The quarter finals of the Nationwide and
Chairman's leagues produced several shockers as some of the favourites fell by
the way side. In the Nationwide, the Floodlit university champions USIU lost to
Kakamega II 22-27 at their Thika road grounds. Other results saw high flying
Egerton Wasps dispatch Masinde Muliro 36-19, with Mombasa SC romping to a 49-16
win over Kisii RFC. Eldoret booked the last Semi final spot with a 20-12 win
over TUK 'tuk'.
Nationwide Quarter Finals:
USIU 22-27 Kakamega II
Egerton 36-19 Masinde Muliro
Mombasa SC 49-16 Kisii RFC
Eldoret 20-12 TUK
The semi final match ups from this one are
as follows:
Eldoret vs Kakamega II
Mombasa SC vs Egerton
In the Chairman's league, Comras fairytale
run kept going as they saw off Mombasa II 12-10 at the coast, with favourites
Catholic University convincingly seeing off the Technical University of Mombasa
(TUM) 49-10. Thika RFC booked a Semi final berth with a 24-7 win over JKUAT
Voi, the last Quarter final between Daystar and KEMU Nairobi was postponed to
Tuesday.
Chairman's Quarter Finals:
Mombasa II 10-12 Comras
Catholic University 49-10 TUM
JKUAT Voi 7-24 Thika RFC
Daystar – KEMU
The Semi finals will see Catholic
University host Thika RFC, With the winner between Daystar and KEMU meeting
Comras.
Catholic University vs Thika RFC
Daystar/KEMU vs Comras
The ESS saw the final fixtures of the
regular season played out, and with 5 sides battling out for three semi final
spots, there was bound to be heart breaks.
Leaders Quins II who already had both feet
in the semi finals only had their illustrious unbeaten run to preserve and this
they did in style, whooping Nakuru II 42-18. This sees them finish on 52 points,
that defeat meant that Nakuru II's season came to an end, finishing in 6th
on 33 points.
The KCB cubs battled past a brave Machetes
at the Blad bin eventually coming out 27-7 winners and book a home semi final
spot courtesy of a second place finish on 38 points. The Machetes finished
their campaign in 9th on 13 points.
The Impala boks who carry their clubs only
hope of silverware this season did not disappoint, beating Homeboyz II 32-13 to
finish third on 37 points and book a semi final berth against KCB II at the
den. The junior Djs end their campaign in 8th on 16 points.
The last semi final spot was grabbed by the
Catulus of Strathmore who beat Kisumu II 44-10 at the Kisumu Polytechnic
grounds (or is now the Technical University of Kisumu). That win meant they
finish on 36 points, Kisumu II on their part finish last for the second season
in a row, this time on 3 points.
With the victors from the weekend done
with, we look at the not so lucky. Starting with Mwamba II, going into the
weekend, they were in second and needed a win against Machine II to ensure a
home semi final. This however never happened, losing in dramatic fashion to
Machine II 20-17, the losing bonus not enough to get them past Strathmore II.
The two finished level on 36 points were separated on aggregate score, the
Catulus holing the a +43 advantage here. That win sees Machine II finish in 10th
on 12 points.
The other match here between Nondies II and
Kakamega never kicked off and was thus postponed.
ESS
Quins II 42-18 Nakuru II
Blad II 7-27 KCB II
Homeboyz II 13-32 Impala II
Kisumu II 10-44 Strathmore II
Machine II 20-17 Mwamba II
Here is how the table looked at the end:
The Arturos' (Quins II) dominance over this
league cannot be over emphasized, 11 wins from 11, boasting of an average
strike rate of 33 points a game and a concede rate of only 9. They head into
the Semi finals head shoulders and stomach above their rivals. On the flip
side, Kakamega II finish the season with the title of 'leakiest defence',
despite having played a game less, than their counter parts. Currently they
concede 41 points a match on average,. Kisumu II go home with not only last
position, but bluntest attack averaging 6 points a game.
The top flight saw the top four coming into
this last game day book semi final spots though in a re arranged order. The
only standing unbeaten run also fell with teams putting their best feet forward
on closing day.
At the Blad bin, Blak blad already knew
that they were going to finish last no matter the result here when they hosted
KCB. That however did not deter them from putting up a spirited fight against a
largely second string Lions side to restrict the visitors to a mere 17-0 win in
what was expected to be a big margin victory for the visitors. The blad
defended resolutely over the 80 minutes, seemingly happy to soak in the
pressure and causing the KCB defence a couple of problems themselves. The
result as mentioned here meant nothing to Blad as they closed their first
season back on a high, the Lions will however curse their luck as that narrow
win meant they missed their opportunity at a Home semi, finishing 3rd
on 41 points. A bonus win here would have seen them finish second.
In Kisumu, Strathmore put in a great second
half display to get back from a 13-15 to eventually beat their hosts 30-15.
Kisumu had been one of those places that Strathmore dont like travelling to,
having lost here last season. Up until the break, it looked like the Leos would
suffer their 3rd defeat of the season but it was not to be. A 15-0
second half score made sure that the XXVII crew took full advantage of results
elsewhere and finish first on 44 points. Kisumu finish in 11th on 6
points, with only 1win to their name. A major slump from last season.
At the Kakamega high school, Western Bulls
looked to charge at 8th position when they hosted Semi final
hopefuls Nondies. Both teams with one eye/ear in Nairobi, the match ended in a
26-27 win for the hosts with this not being enough to finish in eighth as
Impala had won their fixture. The Total Nondies finish in 6th on 31
points, a massive improvement from last season, the red lions can be proud of
this campaign and might prove to be the start of a turn around for the one time
giants of the game. Western Bulls finish their debut season in 9th
on 22 points, the Echulusi's is probably among the best finishes by a rookie
side in the top flight in recent times, probably only bettered by Machine in
the 70's.
At the Jamuhuri grounds, it was the battle
of 7th vs 8th as the Homeboyz faced off with Impala. The
Djs who by all standards had improved in their sophomre season were looking to
improve their placing to truly reflect that position. To do this they had to
get past a rejuvenated Impala side who have had their worst season in history.
It was the red shirts that came out on top here, 35-17 and end this season on a
high probably sending a signal of intent to the rest of the league going into
the next tournaments. Homeboyz still finish 7th on 30 points, as
mentioned it has been a great season for the djs at some point they were fifth.
In contrast Impala finish 8th on 24 points finishing outside the top
four for the second season running.
4th placed Mwamba made the short
trip on Uhuru highway to the UoN grounds only needing a point to secure a semi
final spot against Mean Machine. With half of the ears at RFUEA paying close
attention to this one, Mwamba went into the break 15-10 to the good with scores
at the RFUEA not a concern for them. At this point there was still hope from
the quarterd shirt faithful that machine could pull a surprise win here. That
hope was quickly crushed in the second half as Kulabu romped to a 44-10 win
here a hatrick of tries from Jumba, with other scorers being Agevi, Edgar Abere
and the returning George Mbaye. Mwamba thus finish in fourth on 40 points,
grabbing the last semi final spot. Machine finish in 10th on 13
points, another disappointing season for the Eschuma, one that never really
took off despite a patch of good performances at one point.
Leaders going into this weekend, the
Menengai Oil Nakuru RFC brought their unbeaten record to the RFUEA against
defending champions the Lunch bar Harlequins. Quins who had to win here with a
bonus and hope that the score they put here would cover the 10 point deficit
they had to Mwamba in the aggregate section. It was a long shot, but one worth
taking and took it they did. Quins got matters started on the right note with a
6-0 lead with two penalties from Asiligwa, this was however short lived, as the
Wanyore got into the scoring through a converted penalty try to take the lead
6-7. Quins have another go at the post, Asiligwa making it 9-7 before Nakuru's
Ben Buda made sure his side took a 9-10 lead into the break.
That was the last time the Wanyore had the
lead in the game, Quins going ahead through a Sydney Ashioya try to make it
16-10 after Asiligwa's conversion, Ben's penalty reduced the deficit to 3
points at 16-13 in what was the final score from Nakuru. From this point Quins
stretched that lead from a Nato Simiyu penalty, Man of the Match Patrice Agunda
went over twice with one of those
converted to bring the score at the final whistle to 30-13. Nakuru slumped to
their first defeat of the season and thus relinquishing top spot to finish
second on 42 points. Quins' title defence comes to an end despite that win and
finish fifth on 35 points, that loss to Homeboyz and draw to Machine have come
back to haunt the, the Quins have not looked like the all dominating side of
the last three seasons and will have to regroup going into the Enterprise Cup.
With that the Semi finals will see KCB
travel to Nakuru with Strathmore hosting Mwamba, based on the previous meetings
of the sides, it looks like it's going to be a Nakuru and Strathmore battling
it out for the title under the Kasarani floodlights on 23rd. I bet
KCB and Mwamba will have something to say rather do about that.
Kenya Cup
BlakBlad 0-17 KCB
Kisumu 15-30 Strathmore
Western Bulls 27-26 Nondies
Homeboyz 17-35 Impala
Machine 10-44 Mwamba
Quins 30-13 Nakuru
The table at the end of the league round:
Leaders Strathmore finish with the most
rampant attack, with an average of 31 points a game ahead of Nakuru and KCB who
stand at 30.2 and 30 respectively, they also take most solid defence at 12.6
just ahead of KCB at 12.8.
No prizes for guessing who has had the most
generous defence, Blak blad conceding an average of 36 points. They also are
the most impotent attack averaging 8.8 points a match.
Finally an appeal to us all, one of our own
Lyle Asiligwa of the Lunch Bar Harlequins needs our help. His mum has been
battling with breast cancer since April 2011. She won that battle after
successful round of Radio and Chemo therapy treatment, but late last year in
October 2012, the cancer cells resurfaced in her lymphatic system. She started
the second round of Chemotherapy today and will need further treatment in India
for 6 months. As you can imagine, the financial implications of this treatment are astronomical.
Send donations to help out with the
treatment and imminent recovery of Mrs. Esther Asiligwa, via Mpesa to
0718394890 (to MMBONE MUSERA) or online through the following link : https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/4QvK9?fb_action_ids=602612449754455&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%257B%25226026124497544
Prayers and any other kind of support
are welcome. Thank you all. Also like this page on Facebook for any more information on the same
With that Ladies and gents, have a great
week ahead aaaannnnnnndddd......
KWISHA.....Nimeruka
Nje!!!!!
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