Nothing really unexpected happened this week. For me the shocker was the 50-3 thrashing of Nondies by Impala. Quins vs. Mwamba was always going to be close, but I thought 15-12 close. Not a 10 try extravaganza in contrasting styles. For KCB and Nakuru those results were expected. This leaves the table standings with Impala still at the top, Nakuru second, KCB leapfrog to third and Quins drop to joint fourth with Mwamba. Mean Machine are now in sixth position and the bottom three remain Nondies, Mombasa and Strathmore, all yet to collect any points.
In the pre-weekend round up, I had mentioned Nondies rebuilding, perhaps here we need to spare a thought about the Impala resurgence. Last year Impala had a fairly mediocre season. They struggled to find form and they struggled to find structure. This year, this all seems to be a thing of the past. I have watched them a few times and I think the number of people taking up responsibility in the club is a major factor. Several older players have "retired" and are now coaching, for example, Bill Odongo and Philip Mwenesi. Add to this the experienced players like Frank Ndong and Moses Kola. Throw in a head coach in the name of Charles Ngovi and you have a very large and competent technical team. It is also not lost upon me that young Nato Simiyu has also taken up the challenge and is really mentoring the younger players. The return of Ian Simiyu can only be a boon to the team. This is the team to watch for the next few years to me. KCB is going to be faced with a large crop of retirees soon and well, Quins are just not there any more. Mwamba are also onto a good thing and my money for the top three at this stage is KCB, Mwamba and Impala.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Weekly Ramble
I have come across some interesting correspondence this past couple of weeks concerning the hard nature of rugby and what is rough and what is tough. Without going into specifics I will try and give my take on the whole thing.
I played rugby from a very young age and was exposed to a lot of tough/rough play. It was normal to punch an opponent, tread on an opponent on the ground, tug a jersey here and there and all manner of indiscretions. Did I partake in all this? Yes I did. And I enjoyed it tremendously. There was nothing better than counting the number of guys you "got" after the match and laughing it off with them. That was part of the camaraderie that went with the game. The greatest enemies on the pitch were sometimes the greatest of friends off it. I also really relished playing against my "greatest" friends during training because they got a taste of me, and me of them. What that made for was I knew what my team mate was upto and would be ready to be by his sides should the need arise. That was rugby then. Is there a place for this in today's game?
A lot of the correspondence I saw felt there was nothing wrong with it. It is part of the intimidation process and getting "one over" your opposite number. Being from the old school, I tend to agree. However, there are some caveats here. Rugby has gone largely professional, though not in Africa. However the increased focus on the game has put some new twists into the game. For instance, those so tough guys here suddenly disappear when Kenya plays Namibia, or a South African side. They suddenly find "tougher guys than them and disappear. The don't want the ball, don't want to tackle and now don't know what to do on the pitch. The increased focus comes with increased surveillance. It is a given that we do not have dozens of cameras in various angles, but we do have assistant referees now. Any competent one will quickly cite you for punching or stamping and you would spend 10 minutes in the bin! How would you be helping your team from there? How many times have I seen a try disallowed because someone tugged the jersey of a defender who was nowhere near the area of play but was spotted by an overzealous assistant referee? On another level, I tend to think that those spending time in these indiscretions are not concentrating on the game. You have two or three such people and all of a sudden 20% of your team is not functioning.
My final word on the whole thing is that I would never teach a player or a team to punch, kick, bite, tug jerseys or any of that. However, I would encourage them to get their ascendancy on their opposite number any which way they can. Their interpretation of that is entirely up to them. On the other hand they should not be intimidated by their opposite number either. How they deal with that is also entirely up to them. What I would encourage would be 100% concentration on what we are trying to achieve as a team. Anything else should be beyond that, i.e. when a player is at 105%+. It is only in that way that we can achieve our set objectives as a team. My take is that it is an idle player who resorts to such. My Ksh. 0.02.
For your reading pleasure, an interesting article.
I played rugby from a very young age and was exposed to a lot of tough/rough play. It was normal to punch an opponent, tread on an opponent on the ground, tug a jersey here and there and all manner of indiscretions. Did I partake in all this? Yes I did. And I enjoyed it tremendously. There was nothing better than counting the number of guys you "got" after the match and laughing it off with them. That was part of the camaraderie that went with the game. The greatest enemies on the pitch were sometimes the greatest of friends off it. I also really relished playing against my "greatest" friends during training because they got a taste of me, and me of them. What that made for was I knew what my team mate was upto and would be ready to be by his sides should the need arise. That was rugby then. Is there a place for this in today's game?
A lot of the correspondence I saw felt there was nothing wrong with it. It is part of the intimidation process and getting "one over" your opposite number. Being from the old school, I tend to agree. However, there are some caveats here. Rugby has gone largely professional, though not in Africa. However the increased focus on the game has put some new twists into the game. For instance, those so tough guys here suddenly disappear when Kenya plays Namibia, or a South African side. They suddenly find "tougher guys than them and disappear. The don't want the ball, don't want to tackle and now don't know what to do on the pitch. The increased focus comes with increased surveillance. It is a given that we do not have dozens of cameras in various angles, but we do have assistant referees now. Any competent one will quickly cite you for punching or stamping and you would spend 10 minutes in the bin! How would you be helping your team from there? How many times have I seen a try disallowed because someone tugged the jersey of a defender who was nowhere near the area of play but was spotted by an overzealous assistant referee? On another level, I tend to think that those spending time in these indiscretions are not concentrating on the game. You have two or three such people and all of a sudden 20% of your team is not functioning.
My final word on the whole thing is that I would never teach a player or a team to punch, kick, bite, tug jerseys or any of that. However, I would encourage them to get their ascendancy on their opposite number any which way they can. Their interpretation of that is entirely up to them. On the other hand they should not be intimidated by their opposite number either. How they deal with that is also entirely up to them. What I would encourage would be 100% concentration on what we are trying to achieve as a team. Anything else should be beyond that, i.e. when a player is at 105%+. It is only in that way that we can achieve our set objectives as a team. My take is that it is an idle player who resorts to such. My Ksh. 0.02.
For your reading pleasure, an interesting article.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Kenya Cup Results
Impala 50 Nondies 3, KCB 43 Mombasa 6, Mwamba 35 Quins 33, Nakuru 46 Strathmore 5.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Weekend Games
Tomorrow sees the third round of the Kenya Cup league. Champions KCB take on visiting Mombasa, Strathmore host Nakuru, Quins are away to Mwamba and Impala face Nondies. All matches kick off at 4.30 p.m. Mean Machine have a rest day.
KCB will have another romp in the park, Strathmore will continue with their baptism of fire. The Quins Mwamba game is a rematch of the Floodlit final that Mwamba won. Interestingly these are the same teams that formed the Rhinos franchise in the recently concluded Bamburi Rugby Super Series. That both sides know each other inside out will make for an interesting contest. Impala vs. Nondies will also be a see-saw battle though I expect Impala to come out tops. Nondies are undergoing a prolonged rebuilding phase and I wait anxiously to see when this will end.
The match-ups will not see any major changes in the league standings unless Impala slip up. Results as soon as I have them as usual.
KCB will have another romp in the park, Strathmore will continue with their baptism of fire. The Quins Mwamba game is a rematch of the Floodlit final that Mwamba won. Interestingly these are the same teams that formed the Rhinos franchise in the recently concluded Bamburi Rugby Super Series. That both sides know each other inside out will make for an interesting contest. Impala vs. Nondies will also be a see-saw battle though I expect Impala to come out tops. Nondies are undergoing a prolonged rebuilding phase and I wait anxiously to see when this will end.
The match-ups will not see any major changes in the league standings unless Impala slip up. Results as soon as I have them as usual.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Weekly Ramble
Some days ago I wrote a post entitled "Building Rugby in Kenya" where I touched on rugby development in the country. It seems KRFU are on the ball on this one and recently introduced an Under 14's league where there are four teams participating. Apparently, the gentleman running the mini rugby, Eric Situma has convinced some clubs to take up his charges and host them as part of them. Impala seems to have taken up two sides, KCB one and he retains one side.
Whilst a noble idea, I still wonder what targets there are for this league. At this level, great emphasis should be laid on technique and learning to do things the proper way. "Lazy" habits of players need to be kicked out at this early stage and all basics should be sorted out. Let me not say too much before I watch any of the matches, but I have watched the mini-rugby sessions on Sundays and I do not see this happening. I also have a concern as to what support the Union will give the clubs that take up this challenge.
The IRB is particularly keen on promoting two levels of sport worldwide. This is age-grade rugby and women's rugby. This is where the IRB is spending at the moment. Women's rugby has been around for sometime. Only two clubs had taken up the challenge, Mwamba and Quins and this without union support. The Quins ladies quickly faded out and linked up with the Mwamba ones. Now Nondies also seem to have taken this up. What's my point? Self supporting clubs have their hands full at the moment with their players in the two leagues. Their resources are also spread thin and spending either time or money on either age grade rugby or women's rugby without any incentive or support from without. Why then would clubs take up this added burden? In a past draft strategic plan for the union, the technical working committee recommended incentives be given to clubs who run such programmes. We are quickly becoming like the government, the 2006-2011 strategic plan is yet to see the light of day!!
Two months past the Annual General Meeting, I still do not think the board have met. The last KRFU strategic plan expired in 2005 and the 2006-2011 plan, though debated quite thoroughly was never adopted nor anything done about it. What then are our directors doing?
Whilst a noble idea, I still wonder what targets there are for this league. At this level, great emphasis should be laid on technique and learning to do things the proper way. "Lazy" habits of players need to be kicked out at this early stage and all basics should be sorted out. Let me not say too much before I watch any of the matches, but I have watched the mini-rugby sessions on Sundays and I do not see this happening. I also have a concern as to what support the Union will give the clubs that take up this challenge.
The IRB is particularly keen on promoting two levels of sport worldwide. This is age-grade rugby and women's rugby. This is where the IRB is spending at the moment. Women's rugby has been around for sometime. Only two clubs had taken up the challenge, Mwamba and Quins and this without union support. The Quins ladies quickly faded out and linked up with the Mwamba ones. Now Nondies also seem to have taken this up. What's my point? Self supporting clubs have their hands full at the moment with their players in the two leagues. Their resources are also spread thin and spending either time or money on either age grade rugby or women's rugby without any incentive or support from without. Why then would clubs take up this added burden? In a past draft strategic plan for the union, the technical working committee recommended incentives be given to clubs who run such programmes. We are quickly becoming like the government, the 2006-2011 strategic plan is yet to see the light of day!!
Two months past the Annual General Meeting, I still do not think the board have met. The last KRFU strategic plan expired in 2005 and the 2006-2011 plan, though debated quite thoroughly was never adopted nor anything done about it. What then are our directors doing?
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Rugby League Tables
Below are the current league tables as they stand, courtesy of KRFU.
KENYA CUP LEAGUE
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Bon | Pts |
| Impala | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 85 | 24 | 61 | 1 | 9 |
| Nakuru | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 49 | 28 | 21 | 0 | 8 |
| Quins | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 54 | 39 | 15 | 3 | 7 |
| M. Machine | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 33 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| KCB | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 67 | 7 | 60 | 1 | 5 |
| Mwamba | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 37 | -2 | 0 | 4 |
| Nondescripts | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 23 | 40 | -17 | 0 | 0 |
| Strathmore | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 96 | -79 | 0 | 0 |
| | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 67 | -55 | 0 | 0 |
| | | | | | | | | | |
ERIC SHIRLEY SHIELD
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Bon | Pts |
| Nondies II | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 85 | 21 | 64 | 2 | 10 |
| Impala II | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 4 |
| Mwamba II | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 35 | 48 | -13 | 0 | 4 |
| Nakuru II | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 40 | 57 | -17 | 0 | 4 |
| KCB II | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Quins II | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 40 | -20 | 0 | 0 |
| Kisumu | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | -14 | 0 | -2 |
| | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 14 | -14 | 0 | -2 |
COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | Diff | Bon | Pts |
| Strathmore II | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 15 |
| USIU-A | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 81 | 17 | 64 | 2 | 14 |
| Daystar | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 68 | 25 | 43 | 1 | 11 |
| M. Machine II | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 105 | 70 | 35 | 2 | 8 |
| Methodist | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 41 | 121 | -80 | 0 | 4 |
| JKUAT | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 28 | -8 | 0 | 2 |
| A. Nazarene | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 60 | 86 | -26 | 0 | 2 |
| | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 145 | -135 | 0 | -2 |
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Kenya Cup Week 2
As predicted, all manner of things happened here. KCB ran away with the Strathmore game, Quins felt the wrath of the "wanyore", Impala scraped through Machine and Nondies went down to Mwamba. It appears the race for the title has begun wide open. Impala top the table with Nakuru a close second. KCB come third with Quins, Mwamba and Machine following closely. Nondies, Mombasa and Strathmore bring up the rear.
An interesting note I came across has Strathmore lodging a complaint about the violence meted out to their team by KCB and the apparent lack of control or ability to do anything about it by the referee. In my opinion nothing should be washed away as sympathy seeking or being sore losers but it seems KCB are going the way of other successful clubs in the recent past. I will not be surprised if they start earning boos from the crowd or being the team everybody wants to hate. It seems to be a vicious cycle repeating itself again and again. How can we build clubs and institutions that are professionally run and the players and fans conduct themselves professionally as well? Let us wait and see.
An interesting note I came across has Strathmore lodging a complaint about the violence meted out to their team by KCB and the apparent lack of control or ability to do anything about it by the referee. In my opinion nothing should be washed away as sympathy seeking or being sore losers but it seems KCB are going the way of other successful clubs in the recent past. I will not be surprised if they start earning boos from the crowd or being the team everybody wants to hate. It seems to be a vicious cycle repeating itself again and again. How can we build clubs and institutions that are professionally run and the players and fans conduct themselves professionally as well? Let us wait and see.
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