Upping the Tempo

Never go to a rugby party or a party organised by the rugby mob if you have something important to do the following day. For the rugby mad, tomorrow never comes. My mama and I found ourselves at the Nondies clubhouse on Friday night for some theme party and it was rocking like something crazy. I could have sworn fancy dress parties are the in thing as the subordinates in the house were in plenty. With all that happening we just couldn't get up on Sato and chose to stay indoors till late in the evening. By the time I knew what was happening with Wasps, they were out of the Heineken Cup.

The SOYA awards were the sporting highlight of the weekend at least locally. Reading the dailes and watching K24 amongst other channels that soccer coach Kimanzi dominated the news. However the rugby fraternity were represented strongly and they scooped awards as the Best Team (men) 2008 and the Best run sports assocaition 2008. Congartulations to the KRFUEA. Job well done. One would ominously think that if you are the best team then you must have the best coach? Ayimba (and his technical crew) did at least deserve that award and the recognition that goes with it. That debate however will be left for another day as the Soya judges decision in final.

The Kenya 7's team will leave anytime this week for Wellington and San Diego where they are usually well supported by rugby maniacs. Good luck to the team but I would prefer if you did not refer to yourselves as 'The Virgins'. Just doesn't sound right. Kenya sounds just fine. The ambitious target of 18 points set by Ayimba does seem a tall order. It can be done but I'm willing to bet that with a World Cup round the corner 10 points maybe a bit more realistic.

As for the Kenya 15's, nothing seems to be happening their way so far. A wild statement by Richard Omwela the rugby Chairman indicates that the 15's team led the legendary coach Tank Otieno (is that his real name?) will play friendlies against top provicial sides from South Africa like the Blue Bulls and the Sharks. That's quite wild in imagination. If it does happen we shall all be pleased. Pursue those Super 14 sides and bring them here if they have space in their schedules.

Junior World Rugby Trophy (JWRT - I finally got the term right), is a World Championship but not a World Cup. Looks like it will be fairly competitive with some quality sides dropping by in Kenya. Are our juniors ready for this competition seeing that they qualified by virtue of being hosts. Where's the hype man? If this is the biggest international IRB rugby event to held in the region why the silence and its only 4 months or less away. Something marketing not right happening here. (I'm an aspiring engineer so that's not my field of speciality).

To Quote KRFUEA: "Kenya will need Sh80 million for next year’s International Rugby Board Junior Rugby World Cup Trophy.

Richard Omwela, the Rugby Union chairman said the championship which is the equivalent of a junior rugby world cup was much bigger than the annual Safari Sevens tournament. “It is a first for Africa and we must get it right,” Omwela said. More money is needed to cater for accommodation, inland transport and logistics. The main sponsors will be the International Rugby Board.

Interest in the JRWT is already growing after the announcement by the IRB that upto some 250 players and officials will be in Kenya for upto 17 days.

Some of the countries which have already qualified have indicated that they will be coming with upto 30 players and officials. Omwela explained that Kenya god the nod ahead of Namibia, Portugal, USA and Argentina who had expressed an interest. The IRB inspected the facilities at all these venues and relied on their instincts as to which venue would best spread the development of the game. “It was not a straight bid,” Omwela explained.

The rugby chairman said it will need the business community and government to be fully involved. “This is a championship which is bigger than the Union and will market Kenya in many countries and continents. It is an opportunity to showcase what Kenya is all about,” Omwela stated."

And finally it seems the KRFUEA is gearing up for elections once again. Todays Nation reports that 4 directors are retiring (hooray) but have offered themselves for re-election (oh no). :(

Other than Gordon Anampiu who is a Machine old boy (the MOB) rest are really just lacklustre in what they do. As for Omwela, the more he talks the wilder he becomes. Is there room for change here? I highly doubt and not in the Obama fashion anyway. When shall this rugby body be a real 8 province affair and not just a predominantly Nairobi affair? Who are Innocent Muturi and Willy Ombisi in the current frame of things? What do they bring to the rugby game?

Lets meet at the JKIA as we say farewell to theteam. Who has flight details?

B2B

Rugby Scoops 2 Awards at SOYA

The National 7's team and the KRFU have won the best men's team and the best federation awards respectively at this year's awards. More later, let me enjoy the slap stick event for now.

Voice of the coaches: Is somebody listening?

Hi Guys. Wishing you an Obama filled weekend. With no local rugby action in the horizon, my mama and I will surf through Supersport at Mwendas this weekend and watch the Heineken Cup games. Some of the games are do or die fixtures so the adrenaline levels will be pretty high. Watch out for London Wasps.

On the local scenario a few coaches have sensibly appealed to the KRFU to seriously think about harmonising the local rugby fixtures in line with the IRB calendar. One thing for sure is 2009 is going to be a diificult season especially for the players. While the KRFU continously bask in the glory of their international achievements, they should at least spare a thought or two for the local scenario.

Is the KRFU listening or are they concerned as usual with more important things?

Have a rugby filled weekend!

B2B

Weekly Ramble

So what makes us different from our political class? Just what was the whole hullabaloo about? An attempt was made last year to harmonise our local rugby calendar with the international calender, i.e. to adopt the World Wide Structured Season. But no.. we would not have it. The season will be too long. The players will burn out. There will be no rest between this season and next season. And worst of all, OUR tournament cannot be on a different date! Wow, all very good and valid reasons, so why the sudden change?

The Junior World Rugby Trophy is the reason for the change. And the fact that IRB is splashing a lot of money around. That the tournament will be hosted entirely on Ngong' Road is a topic for another ramble. Mine is just the double faced nature of all of us. We are now faced with the longest season ever, with new tournaments in between and a completely new structure. I will talk the first part of the season.

The season starts with a series of Under 20 tournaments. The reasons for this are obvious, but to me escapist. They want to SELECT players for the JWRT. Regular readers of this blog know what I feel about that. I thought we sent a team for the qualifier? That we did not qualify then does not mean they were not a good team. This should be our automatic starting block and they should be already training as we build up on the preparations for the event. Compare with the Cayman Islands who we will play! I shudder at the thought. I have said this many times and I won't stop saying it. We need to get out of selecting players and getting with the work of preparing/coaching them! Modern rugby is about structures and if our only structure is how to select, it explains why no one ever listens to the coaches. If this tournament is the biggest thing to happen to Kenya in terms of rugby, I'd expect us to put our best performance on the pitch also, not just big wigs strutting around, giving interviews and saying the event was a huge success, we made so much money, we re-built two pitches, we now have our own borehole, etc. and not a word on the players. Remember, these are the youth and the players of tomorrow. This is when they need to be shown how things work. One comment on this blog had it that places on some teams go to the highest bidder. If ours is just to select.. no wonder.

The Journey Begins

The Journey Begins

Campo has been alive and kicking. How does one go to class when there is a big screen showing the inauguration of Barack H. Obama right in our vicinity? My Luo cousins have gone the extra mile to ensure that the whole university is in sync with what is happening in Washington DC.

And so the journey begins for a man who was despised here at home during his last visit by that Mutua fellow. How things change in such short a time. My mama and I have followed events and eventually at 8am this morning we said enough is enough and moved over to Kengeles Koinange for the subsidised Obama breakfast. Pity Mwendas was closed. Engineering takes a backseat this week as we recover from the inauguration festivities.

The journey begins here at home for the national Rugby 7's side as well. I have been eagerly waiting to see who makes the final cut. K'Opondo unfortunately will not be travelling this time round so lets look at the remaining crew.

Deserving (Tested): Khayange, Injera, Lavin, Onyango, Weru, Oduor
Debatable (but worth the money) : Ashioya, Owiti, Nyambu, Ochola, Gathumbi, Shimenga
Question Marks: Adema, Nyikuli
Tourist (PayTv): Nato Simiyu

This above squad seems to be what will be the core of the team with maybe the addition of K'Opondo, Sudi and Namcos that will compete for Kenya in the next three competions. As said earlier the journey has just begun and good luck to them. What should we expect from them? Simply victories and and top 8 performances.

The other journey begining is the 2009 Kenya rugby season. Haven't seen the fixtures yet but word confirmed is that the Impala Floodlit will no longer occupy its traditional slot. The KRFU may have just cocked up here by starting with the Bamburi Super 4. What do clubs do in the meantime? We wait for a clearer route map for this journey.

While I await to see a copy of the fixtures I know the Junour World Cup or Trophy will be hosted here in Kenya soon. When does this journey begin for those under-20's? Other participating teams are in full gear. Hopefully we will be at our best by then when the competition begins.

Too much happening at the moment but one thing for sure Kenya rugby is an exciting and eventful place to be.

The journey has begun. We need to last to the very end.

7's Squad Named for Wellington & San Diego

The following players have been named to travel to the next two legs of the IRB World Sevens Circuit to take place in Wellington, New Zealand and San Diego, United States of America respectively

1.  Collin Injera

2.  Humphrey Khayange

3.  Victor Oduor

4.  Horace Otieno

5.  Cyprian Shimenga

6.  Gibson Weru

7.  Brian Nyikuli

8.  Peter Ocholla

9.  Nato Simiyu

10. Sidney Ashioya

11. Allan Onyango

12.  Joshua Gathumbi

13.  Lavin Asego

14.  Ben Nyambu

15. Biko Adema

Coach:  Benjamin Ayimba, Assistant Coach - Felix Ochieng, Team Manager - Oscar Osir, Physiotherapist - George Odhiambo

World Cup 7's Draw Released

The draw for the 2009 Rugby World Cup 7's has been released.  Kenya find themselves in a favorable pool with England, Hong Kong and Tunisia.  On paper that looks like a fairly simple pool, however, we need to remember this is a World Cup Competition.  People do amazing things during a World Cup and we must be able to do the same.  I would just like to implore on the Union and the Team management that we must do something different to prepare for the tournament.  Normal preparations won't wash here and we must go the extra mile to be our best.  For instance, prior to the last 7's World Cup, Tunisia spent three months in Fiji, just preparing.  I don't know what they have done this time.  England for sure will be at their best and won't fall as easily to us as before.  As for Hong Kong, I don't think any of their players are indigenious locals.  All are expatriates and hence be ready for some mercenaries in the side.. from Australia, New Zealand and even England.

We wish the boys well.

As a recap, one of DM's favorite topics, 7's vs 15's.  You can review this post and another one I found.  Then see the comments of Stuart Barnes on the same.

Why Us?

I was shocked at this news.  No wonder in Kenya we still call them coaches.  Only in Kenya does this happen.  The fact that it has happened in football does not mean it is the only sport where this occurs.  Several years ago, a director of the KRFU on a whim, sacked the then National coach two weeks before a major match.  Then they thought there were several people hungry to take up the job.  Shock to them, no one was interested and we ended up going into a game with one person assigned the role of player/captain/coach for the game.  It was one of our best performances on home soil, but was that the right decision?

We have said this on this blog many times.. why are we so keen of finding scapegoats?  If heads must roll for something, why from the bottom?  Is the bottom the problem or the entire setup?  Who will take responsibility for the whole rot, because that is what it is?  And why can't National coaches be left to do their job, i.e. coach?  Is it not the coach who knows the players?  Is it not the coach who sets the programmes for the team?  Why do some people want to coach by proxy, without accepting the responsibility for the performance of the team?  The modern coach is not really a coach, but a manager of resources.  The greatest resource he has is the human resource or players.  Why not let him manage that to the best of his ability?  The big man syndrome is here to stay in Africa and if we can't weed it out of a simple thing like sports, God help us all.

Weekly Ramble

As I gather my stride and momentum, I took the last week or so just going round clubs watching what was going on. It appears there is some real psyche for the season. I can't really tell what the motivator is but gosh, there are lots of people out trying to play the game. I was more keen on how they were playing and just did a bit of compare and contrast.

There are two types of coaching techniques. There is the technical and the physical. My belief is that the correct combination of the two will create the winning team. However, in Kenya, we are more used to the physical kind. Throughout my long career, I only had coaches who made me work hard. Everything was hard, the running, the push ups, the burpies, the tackling.. etc. It was left to ourselves to try and utilise our brain and ability otherwise. We were not specifically told how to do that, but it was more of survival of the fittest. Contrast that with more developed countries. There is a fine mix of both and that gives the edge. When you have tough, thinking players, you have complete players.

Given, it is just the first weeks of the season and the immediate goal is to get players fit, any which way, so most of what I saw was just the hard bit. Added to the fact that one ground I saw had close to seventy people on the pitch playing at the same time, maybe it is just a way to get rid of the faint hearted early and get left with the committed players to work on. All in all I think we need to work at getting the right mix in our technical teams.

I wish all the teams a good and successful (though there can only be one winner) season.

My faith is built on nothing else

My faith is built on nothing else

But the speed of Mean Machine.

Going away to make a try

Against all the other teams.

On Mean Machine I lay my trust,

All other teams are sinking sides;

All other teams are sinking sides.

No classes, no lecturers, its a slow start to the academic year. As a student January is a 'kaa ngumu' month. Peros are not willing to give money as they have other presiing needs. Survival is the name of the game. One is expected to fend for him/herself in this Kenyan world filled with a culture of impunity.

Lucky for me my mama feels a bit patriotic this evening and with a few loose coins in her purse, Mwenda's will be the location as we support Harambee Stars.

A year back I was psyched to be part of the campus rugby team. That ambition ended on day one. As they say the rest is history. I took a stroll to the rugby grounds and getting there I felt a rush of excitement engulf me.

New players, freshers, expired players, wannabees and the oteros were enganged in a game of touch. The one thing that you cant fault my team is the sheer enthusiasm of my fellow students when it comes to rugby. (I hope most of them are students at least).

The club has a history and is no doubt one of the most popular, controversial and successful indegenous clubs around. The alumni list is a who's who in Kenya. Pride comes to mind and I'm proud to be associated with this club.

What are our chances this year? Ever the optimist I say "My faith is built on nothing else But the speed of.....". Any team that dares underrate us will be on the receiving end. This may just be the year that sees the Kenya Cup back in Hall 13. Dare I dream.

The national sevens squad will be named tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what Ayimba's choices are. Kenya had a mixed start in the first two rounds that can be described as at their best and at their worst.

K'Opondo continues to keep our flag flying but there are serious passengers in that squad. The rumours at the campus grounds are that some places in the team go to the highest bidder. Lets see the squad tommorrow and then will analyse and see whether they indeed are rumours or reality.

As for Harambee Stars bring that okombe by fixing those sebos.

2009

I've just returned to work after a well deserved break.  I now feel refreshed and rejuvenated, ready to take 2009 head on.  Do I have a mission, do I have an agenda?  Of course I do.  It is not just random ranting and raving that I do.  I have a passion for rugby and I feel we are not giving it the attention it needs.  To the outside world, everything is hanky dory and seems fine.  Rugby is the best run sport in Kenya, organised, no wrangles and with a purpose.  For some reason, there seems to be a code of silence amongst rugby players and officials and unfortunately I have been a part of that.  The only news that gets out/published is good news.  Of course with the complicity a pliant media but we all know them.. a law unto themselves.

Well we have been getting interesting e-mails and now know all is not as it seems!  Not everyone is happy but nobody seems to want to rock the boat (wonder where it's going, or just floating in Uhuru Park).  Is this really doing the game good?  Sweeping dust under the carpet, hiding our heads in the sand, call it what you may, but no one wants to be the traitor.  Well, with our growing spread of contributors, we think we may be able to tell a tale or two and finally "get rugby out of the closet".

Numbers.. what do they say?

Not mine, official IRB Statistics.  Is Rugby in Kenya on the right path?  A casual glance at the figures.  Number of clubs.  I wonder which ones.  We struggle to get 24 teams for local 7's tournaments.  There must be a criteria for clubs, unless we count all social ones as well.  Meaning Les Gaulois and my Sunday touch club are counted!  To be fair let's talk affiliates, and I believe there are affiliation rules.  Registered players, I won't talk much.  The last time KRFU tried to register players there was a fiasco with favoritism being shown in inter club transfer rules.  The whole project was abandoned.  REFEREES!! I leave it there.  The figures for female players are totally skewed, but perhaps an indication of the direction we are heading.  This is in relation to the high number of pre-teen female and teen female players (registered?).  Totally different from the pre-teen and teen male players.  Are we focusing more on female players ( I know IRB funding is more for women's rugby than "our" rugby)?  

Now let's look at the figures a bit critically.  We all know that most rugby playing schools struggle to raise an effective first team, leave alone a second team.  Even traditional rugby playing schools like Nairobi School and Lenana School struggle with this as there is no internal structure to maintain a rugby culture.  Inter house competitions died off and the rugby team is more of a club than a culmination of a process.  Therefore, realistically speaking, how many rugby players are there in a school?  Let's be generous and say 60.  Divide the teen rugby players by that amount to get an approximation of the number of schools playing rugby.... 385!! WOW.  Move to the senior players.  It is a fact, not many of the "38" clubs can raise a first, leave alone a second team.  With benefit of the doubt for numbers (since they don't lie), divide the senior male players by 38.... 105 players per club... WOW again.  You can contrast with Argentina's figures.

With such "huge" numbers playing rugby, is there a system that guarantees that the best at the bottom are guided all the way to the top?  Obviously not.  It is clear we have been playing a numbers game in order to continue getting IRB funding.  With such numbers playing the game, there is one glaring statistic missing on that page, or anywhere else in the public domain for that matter.... number of qualifed/registered coaches.  This is the crux of the matter.  Who is coaching all these players and what are they being coached?

The answer is your choice.. what do the numbers say?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year rugby lovers and fans.  We are now re-energised and ready to face the challenges of the New Year.  What those are, at the moment we don't know, but whatever comes up, we will handle it.  The Kenyan Rugby Season starts nice and early with the traditional Impala Floodlit and teams will be preparing for that.  DM had travelled and will be back next week to resume his incisive Weekly Rambles.  We still welcome any interested contributors to write to us and we will include them amongst the contributors, under no obligations whatsoever.

Answer to my quiz - X marks the odd one out.  Never has, is not and never will be anything in Kenyan Rugby.

Kenya Rugby Awards 2008 to the deserving (few)

An FFT Example - Done Using Matlab
In this note we are going to analyze a triangle signal using the FFT. Here is the signal.
The signal has 4000 samples, and the length of the record is 2 milliseconds. (It goes from -.001 seconds to +.001 seconds.)
Since the length of the record is 2 milliseconds, if we compute the FFT for the entire record (which we would normally do), then the fundamental frequency in the computed results is going to be 1/.002 = 500 Hz. We will refer to this as the fundamental frequency of the data record.
Within the data record is the triangle signal, and it has a period of 1 millisecond, so it has a frequency of 1 KHz. Now, we need to examine what happens when we FFT this signal. We will use the m-file below. This basic m-file was discussed in another note.
Data=dlmread('5VoltSqWvDataInclT.txt','\t');
Time = Data(:,1);
VData = Data(:,2);
plot(Time,VData)
pause
SigFFT = fft(VData);
plot(abs(SigFFT)) Now, if we look at the plot of the absolute value of the SigFFT array, we get a plot like the one below.
Now, the fundamental frequency of the data record is 500 Hz. You need to be able to get from that to the actual frequency components of the signal. Here is what you need to use.
The fundamental frequency of the data record is the reciprocal of the length (in seconds) of the data record.
In Matlab, the indices start from one. So, ao, is going to be placed in SigFFT(1) in our m-file above.

These are the kind of engineering thoughts that have clogged my mind once we crossed into 2009.

I meant to have written this article in late 2008 but exams and another graduation (plenty grad parties attended) at UON denied me time. With the festive season in place my mama and I enjoyed a peaceful Nairobi as it had been abandoneded by money who chose to celebrate elsewhere. Nevertheless Mwenda's was my joint of choice but I was convinced by my soulmate to try out Galileo's and Tamasha Hurlingham. (Doubt if she will want a revisit to Tamasha again).

In the absence of awards by those who govern the game, let me attempt to fill the void.

My club Mean Machine 2008 awards are as follows (thanks DM for this): Award winner followed by runner up.

Player of the Year
Wilson K' Opondo
Eric Madegwa

Most Promising Player
Conrad S Ouko
Davey Oduor

Best Back
Eric Madegwa

Best Forward
Wilson K'Opondo

Town Cryer
Benji Erukaan

Machines Next Top Model
Felix Wanjala

The Donkey Award
John Ouko

Now with abit of imagination lets do the same awards for KRFU

Player of the Year
Collins Injera
Daniel Kiptoo

Most Promising Player
Vincent Mose
Samuel Wefwafwa

Best Back
Collins Injera
Humphrey Kayange

Best Forward
Daniel Kiptoo
George Mbaye

Town Cryer
Wangila Simiyu (Tirelessly appealed to the government)

KRFU Top Models
The Ladies Rugby Team

The Donkey Award
KRFU (for not having awards for players)

Best Team
Kenya 7's
Kenya 15's
Mean Machine

Can't wait for more rugby.