Building Rugby in Kenya

This is an age old question that I am sure many people have asked themselves time and time again. how do you build the game of rugby in Kenya? As many as have asked this question, I'm sure as many answers have been forthcoming. I will just ramble a bit with my thoughts.

Top down, versus bottom up, I favour bottom up. It involves more people, affects more people and is sustainable. What do I mean? Develop the rugby from the bottom, from the grassroots, and with a good enough structure to sustain it. By this I do not just mean dishing out balls and letting a lot of rugby be played at the grassroots, but there must be clearly defined path from the grassroots, to the top. How, for instance, will the mini rugby player get to the National team?

Right now we claim to have a very successful mini rugby programme, but just what are the aims and objectives? Are there targets that the children must attain for us the claim the programme is a success? I have seen children as old as 20 playing "mini-rugby" because they believe so long as they are in school, they can only play mini rugby!

We also claim to have close to 150 secondary schools around the country playing rugby. How come then, don't we have a huge influx of players into the clubs each year? Where do these players go? What are we losing them to? Maybe nobody asks those questions. If only the one best player from each school joined a club, we would have 150 new players each year!

What about our club structure? How come we don't get new clubs? How come the few clubs struggle to even raise two teams during the season? Do the clubs have the structures to accommodate the massive number of players I have talked about? Even in an amateur setup, not much really is required from the clubs, just the right structures.

Who then in responsible for overseeing all this mess? The Kenya Rugby Football Union? It is interesting to note that since the KRFU AGM and elections on 28th February, not a single board meeting has taken place to date! Even if it just for the board members to acquaint themselves with each other and discuss strategy. Are these the guys we are relying on to run the game?

The top down system seems to be the one favoured by our KRFU. If the 7's team does well, the 15's will follow and rugby will grow. Does that sound familiar? I leave it there.