Quins Host Nondies In Match Day 5 Action.

After four rounds of matches, the seven leagues around the country are slowly taking shape especially in the Nationwide leagues as they approach the half way point. This weekend sees another full serving of action across those leagues, with some mouth watering clashes lined up.

Action from a past encounter - (Photo - Michezo Africa)

Nationwide - Nairobi

In the Nairobi Nationwide league, second placed TUK have the chance to close the gap on the early leaders USIU when they face bottom placed KEMU. USIU's fixture against Multimedia was postponed so was the one between KCA and Nazarene.

This weekend will also see the clash of the two club sides in this league with Mwamba III taking on Impala IIIat the Nairobi Railways Club. Here are the full fixtures from Nairobi :

Mwamba III vs Impala III - 2pm, Nairobi Railways Club
Daystar vs Mt Kenya - 3pm, Athi River
TUK vs KEMU - 3pm,UoN
Catholic vs Comras - 11am, Cuea Karen

Western Region

In the Western Region, leaders Kabras travel to the Kakamega show ground to play second place Masinde Muliro in the stand out fixture. The two are tied on 14 points at the summit of the western conference with Kabras holding the points advantage.

Third placed Bungoma on 11 points will be looking to capitalise on that top of the table clash when they meet Siaya. The fixtures from this region are as follows:

Bungoma vs Siaya - 3pm, Bungoma High
Kakamega vs Kisii - 2pm, Kakamega Show ground
Masinde Muliro vs Kabras - 4pm, Kakamega Show ground
Webuye vs Maseno - 3pm, Webuye DEB

Rift Valley Region

The Rift Valley region will have leaders Egerton taking on Kitale who are placed 7th. Second placed Kericho will be facing Moi University at the latter's grounds as Nakuru III take on Naivasha at the NAC.

Nakuru III vs Naivasha - 12pm, NAC
Egerton vs Kitale - 3pm, Egerton Uni
Kabarak vs Uni of Eldoret - 3pm, Kabarak Uni.
Moi Uni vs Kericho - 3pm, Moi Uni.

Coast Region

The Technical University of Mombasa has already opened a four point lead at the top of the Coast region with 19 points and will be looking to stretch that gap when they face the Stormers in Athi river.
The Stormers are placed fourth on 9 points. Second placed Spartans host third place Masaku at the Shimo La Tewa high school, the two are separated by two points. Other fixtures in the region are :

Malindi vs Shepherds - 3pm, Malindi High
Coast Raiders vs SC Pirates - 3pm, St. Charles Lwanga
Spartans vs Masaku - 3pm, Shimo la tewa
Stormers vs TUM - 3pm, EA Uni, Kitengela

Central Region

The Central region will witness a top of the table clash as leaders KEMU host second placed JKUAT in Meru, KEMU have a five point advantage over JKUAT albeit having played a game more. This will be the
perfect opportunity for JKUAT to narrow that gap. Third placed Laikipia will be looking to take full advantage of that clash when they host last placed Karatina.

Karatina vs Laikipia - 3pm, Karatina Uni
Kimathi vs Kiambu - 3pm, Dedan Kimathi Uni
KEMU vs JKUAT - 3pm, KEMU Meru
Embu vs Thika - 3pm.

ESS

The ESS leaders Nakuru II on a perfect 20 after 4 matches host 12th placed Machine II who are yet to put points on the board after a similar number of matches. Nakuru II come into this one off a 39-0 win over Kisumu II, Machine II were on the receiving end of a 41-13 score against the Catulus of Strathmore.

Second placed Catulus on 19 points host Western Bulls II at the cage as third placed Nondies II visit old time rivals Quins II who are in 6th, the two are separated by 5 points with the Arturos having a game in hand.

Fourth placed Mwamba II tied on points with Nondies II will play host to Impala II at the Nairobi Railways Club. Eldoret II host Kisumu II in a bottom of the table clash, both sides are on negative numbers after failing to honour a couple of fixtures, it will be a great opportunity for one of them to jump on the right side of the number line.

Mombasa II vs BlakBlad II - 2pm, MSC
Eldoret II vs Kisumu II - 2pm, Hill School Eldoret.
Nakuru II vs Machine II - 2pm, NAC
Strathmore II vs Western Bulls II - 2pm, Madaraka
Mwamba II vs Impala II - 2pm, Nairobi Railway Club
KCB II vs Homeboyz II - 2pm, Ruaraka
Quins II vs Nondies II - 2pm, RFUEA

KENYA CUP

The top flight Kenya Cup is slowly shaping up with last season's finalists Strathmore and Nakuru occupying the top two slots tied on 20 points, the former holding a 14 point advantage in the aggregate column.

Nondies are holding third spot a point adrift of the two, with Mwamba rounding up the top four with 15 points. The top four sides have all played 4 matches, in 5th is Quins on 10 points after playing 2 matches,
KCB are sixth on 8 points after 3 matches, Homeboyz are 7th on 6 points having played a similar number of games as KCB.

Western Bulls (6), BlakBlad (5), Impala (4), Mombasa (4), Machine (1), Kisumu (0) and Eldoret (-2)
complete the log.

Strathmore vs Western Bulls, 4pm, Madaraka.

Leaders Strathmore will be looking to keep their perfect run going when they host Western Bulls at the cage in Madaraka. Strathmore have the perfect run of scoring bonus wins in the four matches so far and will probably face their toughest challenge yet.

Western Bulls vs Mwamba from Match day 3 (Photo - Western Bulls)

Both sides come into this one high on morale after recording impressive wins on match day three, the Leos beating Machine 33-3 in a match where they finished with 13 men on the field. The bulls on the other hand beat Mwamba for the first time in the league, a 15-13 win at the Kakamega high school, which was also their first win of the season. Both sides will be looking to build on those wins, last time these two met the Leos were 35-14 winners at the same venue.

Mombasa vs Blakblad, 4pm, MSC.

After the win over Eldoret last weekend, Mombasa are in another potential relegation eight pointer when they host Blakblad at the Mombasa sports club. Blad are yet to register a win since their promotion to the Kenya Cup last season, they will view this fixture as a great opportunity to break that run.

Mombasa showed against Eldoret that they are a real force at their Mombasa Sports club back yard, and will be looking to make it two wins on the trot. The last time these two met was back in the 2011/12 season in the then Nationwide semi finals where Blad won home and away to book a final berth and later Kenya Cup promotion.

Little is left of that all conquering 2011/12 side from Blad the current class will be looking to emulate that performance and claim their first Kenya Cup win since their return.

Eldoret vs Kisumu, 4pm, Hill School Eldoret.

This will be another relegation eight pointer, pitting the bottom two sides currently on the log. After failing to honour the fixture against Blakblad last weekend, Eldoret find themselves on -2 points with Kisumu yet to score points on the log.

Kisumu come into this fixture off a 65-0 loss and bogged with a series of in fighting they will be looking to put smiles back on the Kondele faithful, they will however have their work cut out for them as they face an Eldoret side that have shown that they respect no one when playing at home. It is bound to be an absolute dog fight this one with every blade of grass being battled for.

Nakuru vs Machine, 4pm, NAC.

Defending champions Nakuru welcome Mean Machine to the Suguta valley, the two sides with contrasting fortunes so far. Nakuru have won four out of the four matches played and managed to score winning bonus points in each of those.

Nakuru in action against Mombasa on Match day1 (Photo - Nakuru)

The Eschuma have failed to win any of their four matches, managing to pick up a losing bonus against Mwamba on match day 2. It will be another tough outing for the Mean Machine, especially looking at their previous fixture where they failed to score a try against 13 man Strathmore.

Benjamin Ayimba admited that it was a dismal performance after the game and will be looking for a better performance here. Nakuru will be looking for bonus win number five and keep up with the leaders Strathmore. The last time these two met, Nakuru were 38-15 winners at the UoN grounds.

KCB vs Homeboyz, 4pm, Ruaraka.

This season's 'father-son' clash will again take place at the Lions' den in Ruaraka as KCB take on the Homeboyz. The two have been involved in several entertaining clashes since Homeboyz gained promotion two seasons ago, KCB are yet to lose to the DJs in the league.

The reason I call it a father-son clash (or a main branch vs ATM) is that Homeboyz drew a large chunk of their players from KCB, their current head coach Paul Murunga was part of the all conquering KCB side of 2005-08. The two sides have had a start stop opening to this season, KCB unconvincingly winning two out of their three fixtures, with Homeboyz winning one of three.

The two will be looking to get back into winning ways as they come into this one off match day 3 loses, Homeboyz losing to neighbours Quins 22-16, with KCB falling to Impala 18-0. The last time these two met, KCB were 50-12 winners here last season.

Mwamba vs Impala, 4pm, Nairobi Railway Club.

After registering their first win of the season against KCB last weekend, Impala will be looking to build on that win when they make the short trip to the Nairobi Railway Club to face Mwamba. Kulabu have had a good start to the season, losing one in four, that loss a narrow 13-15 loss to Western Bulls last weekend.

They will be looking to get back to winning ways and keep up with the leaders, it will however be a tough task as they face an Impala side high on morale. As mentioned earlier, Impala were 18-0 winners over KCB on match day 3, this will be their third match this season and they will be looking to get the momentum going.

These two have been involved in titanic battles, this one is set to be another one, the last time these two met in the league, Mwamba were 24-18 winners. Let's not remind the Impala faithful what happened in the Enterprise Cup..

Kenya Harlequins vs Nondescripts,4pm, RFUEA.

The oldest rivalry in Kenya rugby will be renewed this weekend when Quins take on Nondies, battles between the two can be traced as far back as the 1920's, making this one of if not the oldest rivalry in Kenyan sports.

Over the recent past, Quins have been holding a firm grip on the bragging rights in this one, that is until last season when Nondies won this encounter. With the start Nondies have had to this season they look set to keep those rights.

Action between the two from a previous match (Photo Michezo Afrika)

Nondies have so far won four out of four this season. Quins have so far played two matches, winning those though having been stretched to some extent. Nondies will be looking to take advantage of Quins' recent frailties especially at the forwards, with the quartered shirts having the upper hand in the backs.

The last time these two met, Nondies were 23-18 winners at the Jamuhuri grounds, a repeat of this result will see Nondies make their best start to a Kenya Cup season in recent times.

Onto my predictions:

Strath +20 over Bulls
Mombasa +10 over Blad
Eldoret +5 over Kisumu
Nakuru +30 over Machine
KCB +30 over Homeboyz
Impala +5 over Mwamba
Nondies +5 over Quins

With that ladies and gents.....

KWISHA....Nimeruka Nje!!!