Okay, better in George

So the performance was better in George. All I can say is that it was a baptism of fire for the coaches and the players. My only prayer is they learn from it.

Onto the non-internationals. We are now coming to the close of the off season and approaching the pre-season. Modern rugby demands now that players get fit during the off-season and come into the pre-season basically ready to play. All the weight gain and strength should have been worked on coupled with some serious cross training to ease pressure on the joints. In the pre-season, players should now be focusing on their fuel mix conditioning, because that is what they will need to keep them playing for the 100% of the time they are on the park...

Closing the barn door after...

I think it's a bit too late to be calling in re-inforcements. I'm talking about the Kenya National 7-a-side team that just left Dubai. Talk is that it was a dismal performance, the new/young players were a let down...we left our good players behind...

Well to me it's pretty simple. It is the duty/responsibility of the union to send the best prepared team to the events. Over half the team was new...what did they expect? And the fact that the training was not hard enought to prepare them for Dubai does not escape notice. Some players were on the squad despite not having participated in the National circuit, some for injury reasons, the same that recurred in Dubai....surely, seriousness here. Some players were dropped for discipline reasons....nothing to do with the team, just perception, now they want them back. They were initially confident they had adequate replacements only to be hit by the reality.

Reminds me of the 2001 World Cup 7's, where we took a squad of 12 players to Dubai and Cape Town to prepare them for the event, only to drop 8 of them 3 weeks to the World Cup. Any wonder the result then? The challenge in rugby is always to balance your experience and your new talent, not wholesome or sentimental changes. You lose any rhythm you may have built in the past and you basically keep starting afresh. Unfortunately, our technical people have reduced themselves to selectors....and not coaches hence the persistent desire to "name the squad" and to "drop players".

Conditioning

One key aspect of modern rugby is physical conditioning. Players world wide are much fitter - stronger, faster, with more stamina. We don't train enough in Kenya. Two days a week is insufficient. I believe with opportunities opening up world wide for rugby players, any "serious" rugby player would invest in his own physical conditioning. We have a situation where players only take part in supervised training sessions and do no further work on their own. The amateur situation does not help this, but then we have always been amateur. Why then are our fitness levels down? Take the case of the sevens team's performance in Dubai....despite it being a dismal performance (we only scored 2 tries in two days of rugby), we have the highest number of injuries we have ever had. Rumour has it half the team is injured and may be sent back home and other players called up for the next leg. This is surely a pointer to our conditioning levels....

Welcome

Hi all. I just thought I'd try my hand at blogging. Never done it before, but I feel I may have something to offer to Kenyan Rugby. It may appear idealist, but I believe it gives us something to aspire for, as opposed to something to be content about. I will give my views on Kenyan Rugby, my assessment of where it was and where it is now. This will be mainly based on my personal observations so do not feel that I am an authority in the matter. Feel free to comment, I will not have any restrictions to the blog so long as the banter remains mature, focused and logical. Let us engage each other in healthy debate. Thanks.