Uganda once more proved more patient and structured in their approach and once they but off the supply of ball to Collins Injera, they were comfortable.
Do have a good weekend. It's all downhill from here for me.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Elgon Cup Result - Uganda 18 Kenya 13
Kenya squandered an early 13 3 lead to lose this match. A 10 minute period when centre Humphrey Kayange was in the sin bin late in the second half proved crucial as Uganda scored 10 unanswered points to snatch the victory.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Weekend Games
Kenya Cup action takes a break this weekend for the return leg of the Elgon Cup. Kenya start off with an eight point advantage over Uganda in the men's category and with a 28 point advantage in the women's. Such deficits have previously been overcome especially in the past two years when the Kenya men overcame even twenty five point deficits to retain the cup. In the past two years, bot teams have won their home matches, the winning margin for those games being the determinant. The last time Uganda won the cup in 2006, Kenya drew in Kampala and then Uganda won in Nairobi. What will it be this time round?
I do not see both teams doing much different from the first leg. The Ugandans were dominant in the tight and at the breakdown. Kenya, interestingly, want to dominate those areas this time round.. and away at that. Their aim being to bring parity in those areas and win it in the backs where they are hands down favorites. That seems a sound strategy to me, however, one would have thought they would try to do it easier, especially playing away. Work on creating more space for the backs, quicker and earlier, and keep running the forwards, far from where they started. Both Kenya and Uganda are very static in their play, playing forwards against forwards adn backs against backs. That makes for a very simple contest and once one team gets the ascendancy, the other will suffer.
All said and done, I see either a very high scoring game or a very low scoring game. The defences should matter but I think both teams have worked more on offense so maybe the high scoring game. The score should be close, and I expect Kenya to win by 3 points.
All the best lads, we're with you all the way.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Kenya Rugby : History of the Enterprise Cup 1930 to 2005 - 5
THE ROYAL VISIT TO EAST AFRICA – ENDING
The Prince of Wales enjoyed Nairobi and rapidly immersed himself in the social activities of the Kenyan aristocracy (though his nocturnal adventures seem to have been airbrushed out of the diaries). He soon became an experienced safari hand and November found him camped in the isolated bush country of northern Tanganyika with Baron and Baroness Blixen, Denis Finch-Hatton and A. F Lascelles. Here he received a somewhat ambiguous cablegram from Reuters assuring him that his father, King George V, was recovering. Puzzles but not too concerned, he sent back a message of sympathy and enquiry. On the following morning there came a further cable suggesting that the King was doing rather well and there was no need to curtail his safari. By now somewhat alarmed, the party returned to Dodoma where the Prince of Wales discovered a mound of coded cables form the Prime Minister and various Palace officials all urging an immediate return to London. An express train was summoned to carry him from Dodoma to Dar es Salaam, which he reached in the evening of 28th November.
HMS Enterprise had meanwhile completed her East African tour and was on her way home. She was delayed at Aden for ten days by a request to repair the port’s Wireless Telegraphy station (during which period her rugby team managed to beat the local RAF XV and lose to the South Wales Borderers – ‘a good west country team’). She finally set sail for Port Suez on 27th November but two hours out Aden came orders to return to Dar es Salaam, pick up the Prince of Wales, and carry him to Brindisi with all possible speed. The ship sped southwards, refuelled at Mombasa and anchored off to Dar es Salaam at midnight on December 1st. The Prince came aboard at 1000hrs next morning and the ship sailed 30 minutes later reaching Aden on 5th and Port Suez on 7th Decmeber. Here he disembarked and motored to Port Said by way of Cairo, leaving HMS Enterprise to skip through the Suez Canal. Enroute, she narrowly avoided a collision with the Dutch steamer SS Kertsono that swung across the fairway, the careless Dutchman causing an 8 hour delay. Only some expert ship handling by Captain Pridham-Wipple enabled Enterprise to reach Port Said and refuel before arrival from Cairo of the Prince of Wales. The cruiser left Port Said in a boisterous winter storm but was unable to complete her high-speed dash across the Mediterranean at speeds in excess of 30 knots, reaching Brindisi at noon December 10th. The Prince travelled onwards to Boulogne in a special train provided by the Italian government and crossed the English Channel on the packet boat SS Biarritz. He reached Buckingham Palace a mere nine days after leaving Dar es Salaam.
HMS Enterprise completed her homeward journey to Chatham at a more leisurely pace. She had made a record passage from Dar es Salaam to Brindisi, covering 4087 miles in eight days, including refuelling calls and passage through the Suez Canal. The world’s press had followed her progress with eager anticipation and HMS Enterprise gained a measure of respectable notoriety in East Africa as a rather fast lady with a rather slow rugger team.
Almost inevitably there is a further close connection between the high-speed voyage and the development of rugby in Kenya. The navigation officer of HMS Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander Brian Schofield, left the ship in August 1928 and the young Lieutenant Commander C. W.A.G Hamley replaced him for the last four months of the Commission, including the East African visits and the homeward voyage. Many years later this young man left the Royal Navy, as Captain Cyril Hamley RN, and took up residence on the Kenya coast becoming a member of the Legislative Council. In 1951 Captain Hamley became President of Mombasa Sports Club, the mainstay of sporting links with the Navy and the last side to have played against the 1928 Enterprise rugby touring XV.
THE BIRTH OF THE ENTERPRISE CUP
Even as the drama of the Dar es Salaam to Brindisi voyage was unfolding a parcel arrived on the desk of the Honorary Secretary RFUK. It contained a most splendid silver goblet. The officers and men of HMS Enterprise had clapped a Nelsonian telescope to their blind eye and completely ignored the Committee’s polite refusal of their offer to provide a trophy for inter-district competition. Undermined by the global fame of the speedy Enterprise, the Corinthian resolve of the RFUK crumbled and they wrote formally to the ship, accepting their gift. Yet caution still prevailed amongst these purest of amateurs and in December 1928 the Committee sought the approval of the Rugby Football Union and the South African Rugby Football Board, to which they were affiliated, for their proposed action. The response was presumably positive because in early 1929 the RFUK established a sub-committee to develop possible structures for an Inter-District Championship (IDC). They proposed a knockout competition that would take place during the annual RFUK Rugby Weekend and involve four teams – Nairobi District (Nairobi clubs including Thika and Ruiru), Coast District (Mombasa), Plateau District (Kitale/Eldoret), and Rift Valley District (Nakuru/Kericho/Londiani). That the competition did not take place in 1929 as scheduled says much about the continuing difficulty in attracting teams to the RFUK Rugby Weekend. Long-distance travel was difficult and therefore expensive. To counter this problem, the Committee decided to subsidize rugby club travel costs in 1930 and it was surely no coincidence that the first Inter-District Championship took place in this year. Still there were rumblings of discontent regarding the basis of competition and in 1932 the Structural sub-committee was resurrected to think again.
Their new proposal divided Nairobi into three residential zones, Muthaiga and Kabete; Parklands; Town and Hill. Three teams drawn from players who resided in each zone would compete in the IDC against teams from Eldoret, Kitale, Mombasa, Ruiru and Nakuru, eight in all. The Committee itself drew the preliminary round of four matches and proposed that the four winning teams assemble in Nairobi for Semi-final and Final during an old-fashioned RFUK Rugby Weekend culminating in a dance at the Muthaiga Golf Club. Whilst the new structure and terpsichorean attractions were influential in making the 1932 competition a success, of greater importance was the decision to use all gate receipts to subsidise the travel costs of competing teams and no less that 20% of annual RFUK revenue was devoted to this purpose.
By this time the unwieldy term ‘Inter-District Championship’ had given way in the common parlance to the user-friendly ‘Enterprise Cup’, a more appropriate name given the collection of coloured shirts and incredible hats that were to compete for temporary ownership of the trophy during the next seventy-five years.
Murmuring about ‘districts’ continued and early in 1933 the old Structural sub-committee was dragged out, blinking in the daylight, and again set to work on a modified structure. The several clubs within Nairobi District had experienced difficulty in submerging club loyalties when selecting a representative team and a spokesman pointed out that all other teams-Eldoret, Nakuru, Mombasa etc.-were club sides representing districts. He proposed that this should also apply in the case of Nairobi District. The Committee agreed, decreeing that a knockout competition should decide which was the best club side in Nairobi. The outcome of this innovation was revealed in the Semi-finals of the competition, held at Parklands Sports Club on August 4th 1933, when Ruiru played against Mombasa and Eldoret opposed Naivasha. Eldoret won the Enterprise Cup, beating Ruiru in the final at Muthaiga on the following day. Where were the big hitters from Nairobi you ask? A clue might be found in the furious statement issued by the RFUK Committee, complaining that the bill for refreshments at the Enterprise Cup tie between Nondescripts and Muthaiga, amounting to Ksh 33/- (about 25 Pence today) was excessive. Furthermore, the Committee observed that the non-collection of gate money at the same fixture was a dashed poor show – until it was explained that the strenuous efforts had been made to collect the gate from the half dozen spectators present, but without success. Hardly surprising –they were all in the bar partaking of excessive refreshment.
During the period 1932 to 1952 the Enterprise Cup competition was contested between clubs representing districts and yet the fiery debates over structure continued, Changes in the administration of the game were to have a significant effect on that structure. The Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) was created in 1953 and its Committee immediately assumed responsibility for the game in Kenya, the RFUK being mothballed. The Tanganyika Rugby Union was created in 1954, the year when the first team to represent the whole of East Africa (The Tuskers) toured Northern Rhodesia, and in 1955 the Uganda Rugby Union was formed and affiliated to the RFUEA. In the same year, the RFUEA opened their own headquarters building and ground with a match between East Africa and the British Lions. Amidst all of these administrative changes and international tours it is rather surprising to read the RFUEA claim that one of their greatest successes during this period was the removal, in 1956, of the Entertainment Tax on rugby. Should they have been so smug? Surely this meant that the government to longer regarded Kenyan rugby as entertainment? Some of the contemporary newspaper reports certainly give this impression, and, as a frequent visitor…
An attempt in 1952 and 1953 to revive the original, District-based format for competition was not successful and in 1954 it again reverted to a competition between clubs representing districts. An added complication, however, was that the two finalists had to be produced through subsidiary mechanisms with zones, West Kenya/Uganda on the East Kenya/Coast/Northern Tanganyika on the other.
Further adjustment in 1960 created four geographic zones, Uganda, West Kenya, Central Province and Coast/Tanganyika, each producing one semi-finalist by whatever mechanism each zone decided. These semi-finalists then paired off geographically in East Zone and West Zone finals to produce the two Enterprise Cup finalists. The mechanism adopted by the zonal groups to identify their ‘champion’ included mini-leagues in West Kenya (known as the Jones Cup competition) and in Uganda, and knockout competitions in Central Province and Coast/Tanganyika. Every year seemed to throw up some anomaly that rendered the process ridiculous, the final straw being the introduction by Central Province of pre-qualification based on past performance. Despite having an unbeaten record, Impala RFC itself was barred from the Enterprise Cup because it had not pre-qualified on previous season results.
In 1973 the administration of rugby was again radically changed when a new Kenya Rugby Football Union (KRFU) was formed and the RFUEA gradually retreated into the shadows. The zonal basis for the Enterprise Cup was abandoned in favour of a simple knockout competition that continues to this day. The KRFU Committee decides the structure of the first round and club names are drawn from a hat with, it is often said, a certain amount of judicious seeding is used to provide some levelling of a very mountainous playing field.
The Prince of Wales enjoyed Nairobi and rapidly immersed himself in the social activities of the Kenyan aristocracy (though his nocturnal adventures seem to have been airbrushed out of the diaries). He soon became an experienced safari hand and November found him camped in the isolated bush country of northern Tanganyika with Baron and Baroness Blixen, Denis Finch-Hatton and A. F Lascelles. Here he received a somewhat ambiguous cablegram from Reuters assuring him that his father, King George V, was recovering. Puzzles but not too concerned, he sent back a message of sympathy and enquiry. On the following morning there came a further cable suggesting that the King was doing rather well and there was no need to curtail his safari. By now somewhat alarmed, the party returned to Dodoma where the Prince of Wales discovered a mound of coded cables form the Prime Minister and various Palace officials all urging an immediate return to London. An express train was summoned to carry him from Dodoma to Dar es Salaam, which he reached in the evening of 28th November.
HMS Enterprise had meanwhile completed her East African tour and was on her way home. She was delayed at Aden for ten days by a request to repair the port’s Wireless Telegraphy station (during which period her rugby team managed to beat the local RAF XV and lose to the South Wales Borderers – ‘a good west country team’). She finally set sail for Port Suez on 27th November but two hours out Aden came orders to return to Dar es Salaam, pick up the Prince of Wales, and carry him to Brindisi with all possible speed. The ship sped southwards, refuelled at Mombasa and anchored off to Dar es Salaam at midnight on December 1st. The Prince came aboard at 1000hrs next morning and the ship sailed 30 minutes later reaching Aden on 5th and Port Suez on 7th Decmeber. Here he disembarked and motored to Port Said by way of Cairo, leaving HMS Enterprise to skip through the Suez Canal. Enroute, she narrowly avoided a collision with the Dutch steamer SS Kertsono that swung across the fairway, the careless Dutchman causing an 8 hour delay. Only some expert ship handling by Captain Pridham-Wipple enabled Enterprise to reach Port Said and refuel before arrival from Cairo of the Prince of Wales. The cruiser left Port Said in a boisterous winter storm but was unable to complete her high-speed dash across the Mediterranean at speeds in excess of 30 knots, reaching Brindisi at noon December 10th. The Prince travelled onwards to Boulogne in a special train provided by the Italian government and crossed the English Channel on the packet boat SS Biarritz. He reached Buckingham Palace a mere nine days after leaving Dar es Salaam.
HMS Enterprise completed her homeward journey to Chatham at a more leisurely pace. She had made a record passage from Dar es Salaam to Brindisi, covering 4087 miles in eight days, including refuelling calls and passage through the Suez Canal. The world’s press had followed her progress with eager anticipation and HMS Enterprise gained a measure of respectable notoriety in East Africa as a rather fast lady with a rather slow rugger team.
Almost inevitably there is a further close connection between the high-speed voyage and the development of rugby in Kenya. The navigation officer of HMS Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander Brian Schofield, left the ship in August 1928 and the young Lieutenant Commander C. W.A.G Hamley replaced him for the last four months of the Commission, including the East African visits and the homeward voyage. Many years later this young man left the Royal Navy, as Captain Cyril Hamley RN, and took up residence on the Kenya coast becoming a member of the Legislative Council. In 1951 Captain Hamley became President of Mombasa Sports Club, the mainstay of sporting links with the Navy and the last side to have played against the 1928 Enterprise rugby touring XV.
THE BIRTH OF THE ENTERPRISE CUP
Even as the drama of the Dar es Salaam to Brindisi voyage was unfolding a parcel arrived on the desk of the Honorary Secretary RFUK. It contained a most splendid silver goblet. The officers and men of HMS Enterprise had clapped a Nelsonian telescope to their blind eye and completely ignored the Committee’s polite refusal of their offer to provide a trophy for inter-district competition. Undermined by the global fame of the speedy Enterprise, the Corinthian resolve of the RFUK crumbled and they wrote formally to the ship, accepting their gift. Yet caution still prevailed amongst these purest of amateurs and in December 1928 the Committee sought the approval of the Rugby Football Union and the South African Rugby Football Board, to which they were affiliated, for their proposed action. The response was presumably positive because in early 1929 the RFUK established a sub-committee to develop possible structures for an Inter-District Championship (IDC). They proposed a knockout competition that would take place during the annual RFUK Rugby Weekend and involve four teams – Nairobi District (Nairobi clubs including Thika and Ruiru), Coast District (Mombasa), Plateau District (Kitale/Eldoret), and Rift Valley District (Nakuru/Kericho/Londiani). That the competition did not take place in 1929 as scheduled says much about the continuing difficulty in attracting teams to the RFUK Rugby Weekend. Long-distance travel was difficult and therefore expensive. To counter this problem, the Committee decided to subsidize rugby club travel costs in 1930 and it was surely no coincidence that the first Inter-District Championship took place in this year. Still there were rumblings of discontent regarding the basis of competition and in 1932 the Structural sub-committee was resurrected to think again.
Their new proposal divided Nairobi into three residential zones, Muthaiga and Kabete; Parklands; Town and Hill. Three teams drawn from players who resided in each zone would compete in the IDC against teams from Eldoret, Kitale, Mombasa, Ruiru and Nakuru, eight in all. The Committee itself drew the preliminary round of four matches and proposed that the four winning teams assemble in Nairobi for Semi-final and Final during an old-fashioned RFUK Rugby Weekend culminating in a dance at the Muthaiga Golf Club. Whilst the new structure and terpsichorean attractions were influential in making the 1932 competition a success, of greater importance was the decision to use all gate receipts to subsidise the travel costs of competing teams and no less that 20% of annual RFUK revenue was devoted to this purpose.
By this time the unwieldy term ‘Inter-District Championship’ had given way in the common parlance to the user-friendly ‘Enterprise Cup’, a more appropriate name given the collection of coloured shirts and incredible hats that were to compete for temporary ownership of the trophy during the next seventy-five years.
Murmuring about ‘districts’ continued and early in 1933 the old Structural sub-committee was dragged out, blinking in the daylight, and again set to work on a modified structure. The several clubs within Nairobi District had experienced difficulty in submerging club loyalties when selecting a representative team and a spokesman pointed out that all other teams-Eldoret, Nakuru, Mombasa etc.-were club sides representing districts. He proposed that this should also apply in the case of Nairobi District. The Committee agreed, decreeing that a knockout competition should decide which was the best club side in Nairobi. The outcome of this innovation was revealed in the Semi-finals of the competition, held at Parklands Sports Club on August 4th 1933, when Ruiru played against Mombasa and Eldoret opposed Naivasha. Eldoret won the Enterprise Cup, beating Ruiru in the final at Muthaiga on the following day. Where were the big hitters from Nairobi you ask? A clue might be found in the furious statement issued by the RFUK Committee, complaining that the bill for refreshments at the Enterprise Cup tie between Nondescripts and Muthaiga, amounting to Ksh 33/- (about 25 Pence today) was excessive. Furthermore, the Committee observed that the non-collection of gate money at the same fixture was a dashed poor show – until it was explained that the strenuous efforts had been made to collect the gate from the half dozen spectators present, but without success. Hardly surprising –they were all in the bar partaking of excessive refreshment.
During the period 1932 to 1952 the Enterprise Cup competition was contested between clubs representing districts and yet the fiery debates over structure continued, Changes in the administration of the game were to have a significant effect on that structure. The Rugby Football Union of East Africa (RFUEA) was created in 1953 and its Committee immediately assumed responsibility for the game in Kenya, the RFUK being mothballed. The Tanganyika Rugby Union was created in 1954, the year when the first team to represent the whole of East Africa (The Tuskers) toured Northern Rhodesia, and in 1955 the Uganda Rugby Union was formed and affiliated to the RFUEA. In the same year, the RFUEA opened their own headquarters building and ground with a match between East Africa and the British Lions. Amidst all of these administrative changes and international tours it is rather surprising to read the RFUEA claim that one of their greatest successes during this period was the removal, in 1956, of the Entertainment Tax on rugby. Should they have been so smug? Surely this meant that the government to longer regarded Kenyan rugby as entertainment? Some of the contemporary newspaper reports certainly give this impression, and, as a frequent visitor…
An attempt in 1952 and 1953 to revive the original, District-based format for competition was not successful and in 1954 it again reverted to a competition between clubs representing districts. An added complication, however, was that the two finalists had to be produced through subsidiary mechanisms with zones, West Kenya/Uganda on the East Kenya/Coast/Northern Tanganyika on the other.
Further adjustment in 1960 created four geographic zones, Uganda, West Kenya, Central Province and Coast/Tanganyika, each producing one semi-finalist by whatever mechanism each zone decided. These semi-finalists then paired off geographically in East Zone and West Zone finals to produce the two Enterprise Cup finalists. The mechanism adopted by the zonal groups to identify their ‘champion’ included mini-leagues in West Kenya (known as the Jones Cup competition) and in Uganda, and knockout competitions in Central Province and Coast/Tanganyika. Every year seemed to throw up some anomaly that rendered the process ridiculous, the final straw being the introduction by Central Province of pre-qualification based on past performance. Despite having an unbeaten record, Impala RFC itself was barred from the Enterprise Cup because it had not pre-qualified on previous season results.
In 1973 the administration of rugby was again radically changed when a new Kenya Rugby Football Union (KRFU) was formed and the RFUEA gradually retreated into the shadows. The zonal basis for the Enterprise Cup was abandoned in favour of a simple knockout competition that continues to this day. The KRFU Committee decides the structure of the first round and club names are drawn from a hat with, it is often said, a certain amount of judicious seeding is used to provide some levelling of a very mountainous playing field.
Elgon Cup - Return Match
Well, here we go. Once more I did not watch the team train, but I do not expect much to have changed. Whereas the Uganda RU are organised enough to have concluded their league before the "international season", our preparation has been hampered by league matches in between and hence players going back to train and play in their clubs. If the team had any structure, patterns or systems, I would say these were disrupted by the break.. but with the lack of.. no difference really. A few changes in the team. Some players have been moved around in the pack and some have been selected brought in from nowhere into the squad. I don't know what variation Brian Nyikuli will bring into the game, but his experience is welcome. Of course there is the very welcome addition of Humphrey Kayange and Collins Injera, but the forward dominance is where it will count again. If we exhaust our forwards at the initial contact, then take the ball out too wide, where they can't reach.. lots more turnover ball once more. I hope this has been sorted out. I still think we will lose the forwards battle once more. We lost the breakdown battle last time, but this time I think it will be fairly even. The inclusion of Victor Oduor should add some zeal to the side. Peter Mutai's inclusion at scrum half will add some snap to the attack and speed up the delivery to Lavin Asego, giving more options to the outside backs. Of interest is the decision to play Kayange inside Biko Adema. One would have thought they needed to exploit the space outside the midfield and with Kayange's defence drawing and offload ability, using him closer to the forwards means we expect to break through closer other than wider???
It will be too close to call...but I'll stick my neck out and make my call. Kenya will win the match by three points and retain the Elgon Cup! For the Women's match, I don't think Uganda can change much in a fortnight, nkt!
Kenya Womens' Team for Elgon Cup: Cammlyn Awour, Mary Otieno, Rebecca Kerubo, Angela Olum, Rachael Adhiambo, Aberdeen Shikhoyi, Stacy Awour, Ireen Nyakundi, Mary Musyeka, Rubina Wamboi, Judy Agengo, Celestine Masinde, Philladelphia Olando, Ireen Awino, Ester Njue, Adelaide Nasambu, Kezia Adhiambo, Anita Omondi, Dorcas Ocholi, Millicent Opalla, Janet Midecha, Officials: Sammy Kemmey (Coach), Pritt Nyandatt(Ass. Coach)Yvonne Makwali(Team Manager), Gerald Omondi (Physio).
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Elgon Cup Leg ll : Kenya name team for Uganda
Defending a narrow 30-22 lead from the first leg, the Kenya Rugby Football Union has named the team to face Uganda in the second leg of the Elgon Cup 2009. Kenya 15's are the defending Elgon Cup Champions.
KENYA RUGBY 15'S MEN'S TEAM - ELGON CUP
1.Dennis Abenga-Nakuru RFC
2.Vincent Ongera-Kenya Harlequins
3.Daniel Kiptoo-Kenya Harlequins
4.George Odipo-Kenya Harlequins
5.Wilson Kopondo-Mean Machine
6.VIctor Odour-Kenya Harlequins
7.Andrew Amonde-KCB
8.Brian Nyikuli-Impala
9.Peter Mutai-KCB
10.Lavin Asego-Mwamba (Captain)
11.Dan Weku-Impala
12.Humphrey Kayange-Mwamba
13.Biko Adema-Nondies
14.Collins Injera-Mwamba
15.Vincent Mose-Impala
16.Edwin Alubaka-KCB
17.Lawrence Terrer-Nakuru (uncapped)
18.Paul Oketch-Mwamba (uncapped)
19.David Mogere-Quins
20.Charles Kanyi-Nondies
21.Patrice Agunda-Quins
22.Kelvin Omiyo-Nakuru (uncapped)
23.Mike Otieno-Head Coach
24.Edward Kinyany-Asst Coach
25.Charles Ngovi-Asst Coach
26.Chris Makachia-Physio
27.Wangila Simiyu-Team Manager
KENYA RUGBY 15'S MEN'S TEAM - ELGON CUP
1.Dennis Abenga-Nakuru RFC
2.Vincent Ongera-Kenya Harlequins
3.Daniel Kiptoo-Kenya Harlequins
4.George Odipo-Kenya Harlequins
5.Wilson Kopondo-Mean Machine
6.VIctor Odour-Kenya Harlequins
7.Andrew Amonde-KCB
8.Brian Nyikuli-Impala
9.Peter Mutai-KCB
10.Lavin Asego-Mwamba (Captain)
11.Dan Weku-Impala
12.Humphrey Kayange-Mwamba
13.Biko Adema-Nondies
14.Collins Injera-Mwamba
15.Vincent Mose-Impala
16.Edwin Alubaka-KCB
17.Lawrence Terrer-Nakuru (uncapped)
18.Paul Oketch-Mwamba (uncapped)
19.David Mogere-Quins
20.Charles Kanyi-Nondies
21.Patrice Agunda-Quins
22.Kelvin Omiyo-Nakuru (uncapped)
23.Mike Otieno-Head Coach
24.Edward Kinyany-Asst Coach
25.Charles Ngovi-Asst Coach
26.Chris Makachia-Physio
27.Wangila Simiyu-Team Manager
KENYA RUGBY : CENSUS REQUIRED ON KENYA RUGBY
The 2009 Kenya National Census Count is taking place this week. My mama and I have been counted today and so we are 'members' of Kenya actually. There were some uncomfortable questions(where did you sleep last night?)but we waded through that thankfully. People have questioned the need for the public holiday but I believe it has made the process much easier for the enumerators.
As we strolled to Uhuru Park several thoughts crossed my mind with regards to the rugby numbers in Kenya. The KRFU need to conduct a serious and truthful rugby census in regards to the statistics and details of Kenya Rugby.
What is potrayed on the IRB website may be a bit far off the mark in relation to the reality on the ground. The figures in place are flattering to us and the contact details one sided to suit certain individuals so that they definately lock out their counterparts within the KRFU.
The current official but not correctly factual Kenya Rugby statistics are as follows:
President (Chairman?)
Richard Omwela
Union Website
www.kenyarfu.com
Union Email ????? NIL
Union Address
RFUEA GROUNDS, NGONG RD, PO BOX 48322, 00100 NAIROBI, KENYA
NAIROBI
00100 NAIROBI KENYA
Union Phone
+254202370360
Union Fax
NIL
Numbers
Number Of Clubs: 38 (How may are active? Not more than 14)
Number Of Registered Players: 33669 (This needs a correction. The figure of active players is not more than 1000)
Number of Referees: 314 (Another correction required as not more than 12 active/good referees)
Pre-teen Male Players: 3905 (Quarter the number may be correct)
Pre-teen Female Player: 2207 (Not more than 200)
Teen Male Player: 23100 (3000 may be closer)
Teen Female Player: 96 (200 may be closer)
Senior Male Player: 4007 (1200 may be closer)
Senior Female Player: 354 (100 may be closer)
Total Male Player: 31012 (Add figures above but much less)
Total Female Player: 2657 (Add figures above but much less)
Contacts
Primary Coaches Training Contact
Fred Ollows
Primary Referees Training Contact
John Kagagi (What is Sammy Kariuki's role?)
Primary Womens Contact
Frank Sabwa (The KRFU Secretary-General doubles up as the womens contact? There is a Director in charge of women's rugby Ms. Catherine Mugadi)
Primary Youth Contact
Fred Ollows (What about Eric Situma?)
Lets have an accurate Kenya Rugby Census Count and correct contact details. The GM should be an important administrative contact as well.
Have an accountable and transparent week.
As we strolled to Uhuru Park several thoughts crossed my mind with regards to the rugby numbers in Kenya. The KRFU need to conduct a serious and truthful rugby census in regards to the statistics and details of Kenya Rugby.
What is potrayed on the IRB website may be a bit far off the mark in relation to the reality on the ground. The figures in place are flattering to us and the contact details one sided to suit certain individuals so that they definately lock out their counterparts within the KRFU.
The current official but not correctly factual Kenya Rugby statistics are as follows:
President (Chairman?)
Richard Omwela
Union Website
www.kenyarfu.com
Union Email ????? NIL
Union Address
RFUEA GROUNDS, NGONG RD, PO BOX 48322, 00100 NAIROBI, KENYA
NAIROBI
00100 NAIROBI KENYA
Union Phone
+254202370360
Union Fax
NIL
Numbers
Number Of Clubs: 38 (How may are active? Not more than 14)
Number Of Registered Players: 33669 (This needs a correction. The figure of active players is not more than 1000)
Number of Referees: 314 (Another correction required as not more than 12 active/good referees)
Pre-teen Male Players: 3905 (Quarter the number may be correct)
Pre-teen Female Player: 2207 (Not more than 200)
Teen Male Player: 23100 (3000 may be closer)
Teen Female Player: 96 (200 may be closer)
Senior Male Player: 4007 (1200 may be closer)
Senior Female Player: 354 (100 may be closer)
Total Male Player: 31012 (Add figures above but much less)
Total Female Player: 2657 (Add figures above but much less)
Contacts
Primary Coaches Training Contact
Fred Ollows
Primary Referees Training Contact
John Kagagi (What is Sammy Kariuki's role?)
Primary Womens Contact
Frank Sabwa (The KRFU Secretary-General doubles up as the womens contact? There is a Director in charge of women's rugby Ms. Catherine Mugadi)
Primary Youth Contact
Fred Ollows (What about Eric Situma?)
Lets have an accurate Kenya Rugby Census Count and correct contact details. The GM should be an important administrative contact as well.
Have an accountable and transparent week.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Kenya Cup - Week 10
And full of thrills and spills it was. I got nearly all of them wrong and I don't know. Is it that the "weaker" teams are finally getting their act together or the "stronger" teams falling apart? It's difficult to tell, but it has heated up the race for the title. The results see KCB regain the lead, but only separated by points difference from Impala in second place. Nakuru remain at third and Harlequins and Mwamba also retain fourth and fifth positions. The tail end is now Nondies, Machine and Strathmore in that order.
The gap between the first and the fifth team is now up to seven points but with the crunch matches coming up, that is neither here nor there. Quins will rue the lost points agains Machine that should have been a cynch and will now have to work much harder to attempt to retain the covetted trophy. Nakuru also seem to have dropped off the pace, don't know why, but I expect them to pick up for the last four games.
The league will take a break this weekend for the return leg of the Elgon Cup. The union may have finally realised that they would lose the Club vs. Country battle this time round since each match coming up now is extremely crucial to these top five sides.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
KENYA CUP : MEAN MACHINE TRIUMPH OVER QUINS
Mean Machine put a severe dent on Quins faint hopes of retaining the
Kenya Cup by beating them 15-13 at the University of Nairobi grounds.
And the win was testament to the improvement of play and spirit in
true Eschuma style.
Kenya Cup by beating them 15-13 at the University of Nairobi grounds.
And the win was testament to the improvement of play and spirit in
true Eschuma style.
Credit goes to the all the comrades who surely have caused the biggest
rugby upset of the season. Bobobobo........Kopo well done and keep the
team going in that direction. The win sees Machine move up and leave
Strathmore Leos rooted at the bottom. As for the Kenya Harlequins fat
boyz..... Try elsewhere in Kenya rugby.
After celebrating this deadly win the whole night with my mama and
other Machine guys, we are having breakfast at Nakumatt Lifestyle and
then going to crash out and get some serious sleep. The past day was
hectic as All Blacks won Bledisloe, USIU graduation was cool and Mean
Machine are de best in a dis a contest.
Kenya Cup Results - 220809
KCB 29 Strathmore 12 Machine 15 Quins 13 Nakuru 7 Nondies 8. Last result when I get it.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Weekend Games
Kenya Cup matches resume after the break for the international match last weekend. With the top five teams separated by only three points, it makes for interesting watching as to how the table shapes up each week. Lucky are those who play the bottom teams as they potentially have the chance to rack up the points, and in the end that may be the difference between maybe first, second and third this year!
League leaders Impala will play Mwamba under lights once more, this time on Saturday. Second placed Nakuru will face Nondies at Jamhuri Park. Third placed KCB will be hosted by Strathmore at Impala Club and fourth placed Harlequins will be hosted by bottom of the table Mean Machine. I think Mwamba will pull the double on Impala, by eight points, Nakuru will scrape through Nondies by a score, KCB will get a bonus victory over Strathmore and so will Quins over Machine.
Do have a good rugby weekend. Results here after the matches as usual.
PS: A kind reader to the blog has updated us that the KRFU plan to hold a Special General Meeting on September 3rd, where they will present the missing accounts. It would be prudent for them to circulate those for scrutiny beforehand as opposed to trying to ambush and railroad people into accepting them without close scrutiny, as has been the case in the past. Those of us financially inclined should make a point of attending the said SGM.
KENYA CUP : MEAN MACHINE READY TO SHOCK QUINS - Aluta Continua
This Sato sees Machine take on Quins at the campo grounds. The timing
is right coming from our last game where we shocked and shackled
Nakuru.
is right coming from our last game where we shocked and shackled
Nakuru.
Mean Machine are in the right frame of mind and form for the Kenya Cup
rugby match against Quins who will be brought down.
Kopo will be boosted by his excellent game last week and with support
from Gachoka, Johnny, Simiyu, Makori, Dezzy and Wanjala the tries will
definitely flow. The coach is relaxed and optimistic again.
Comrades let's fill the homeground and support the team. Aluta
Continua as we work to climb up the ladder. My mama has been down with
flu this week but should be ok for us to attend the USIU graduation,
watch the All Blacks win and make it in time for the Machine game.
Good luck to Machine. Bring on the fat boyz.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Weekly Ramble
A lot has been said after our performance last weekend in the first leg of the Elgon Cup. For me, the display was expected, and I actually expected quite a big win. While we have not been very consistent in improving our game or our systems or our tactics or whatever, we have remained more or less flat. Two posts by Ruggerbug come to mind here to do with where we think our rugby is and what is clear about our rugby. Also a past analysis I did of our world rankings. Then finally, my pre-international season post. And nothing seems to have changed. Same old, same old. Kind of riminds me of my job. Wake up, go to work, go home, sleep, wake up..ad infinitum. And we're really stuck in that rut. The powers that be are clueless, and as usual, people wait for good things to happen to accept praise, but will not do anything to ensure that the success occurs.
That the technical bench are clueless and need help should be plain for the powers that be to see. But maybe they don't know too much about rugby.. concentrating on running the union in a professional manner and ensuring the Safari Sevens makes enough money for all of rugby to enjoy!!.
I have seen and heard calls, even on this blog, that the team needs to be sacked or so and so included in the technical team. What makes us say this? Is a coach as good as the team, or vice versa? When did Tank stop being a good coach? Or was he never a coach at all? When KCB won three Kenya Cup titles in a row, the clamour was that he should be the national coach. What has changed then? The coach or the team? Others want Mitch Ocholla made the coach for the good work he has done with the Juniors and Strathmore. Strathmore???? Juniors??? Have we already forgotten the just concluded debacle of the CAR Under 19 Championships? Did the coach change or did the team change? And then because Nakuru are doing well all of a suddend the clamour is for Jotham Owili to join the technical team!! As much as I belittle the technical team for being SELECTORS, isn't that what WE ALL ARE? Aren't we also just busy selecting the technical team with the hope that something will change? When did we look holistically at the team to determine what the problem is? I was taught long time ago in management class, that the only person you fire from a job is a thief! You can train someone with deficiencies and a failure to do that, is your own failure!
What then is my beef today since I seem to be hitting out in all directions? Let us all help in our little ways. As players let us be fit and turn up for training on time. As club officials, let us help improve on the skill levels of the players and let us encourage them to train for the national team. We always seem to be fighting the national team and yet when results do not seem to favour us, we are the first to complain, myself included! And with the coming burial of the great pop legend Michael Jackson, I'm going to start with the man in the mirror. I will seek out dialogue with people involved at all levels and let my thoughts be known. It will no longer be the ramblings of a frustrated blogger, but properly channeled discourse. And no, I will not stop blogging, for if blogging brings me peace of mind, then blog I will!
To the technical team and the KRFU in general, ask for help where you are failing. If you need a specialist line-out coach, seek him out. If you need a specialist continuity coach, seek him out. If you need a specialist tactician or game planner, seek him out. And to the KRFU, facilitate all this! And to all of us, remember this.. changing diapers will not stop the baby from sh!+ing.
PS: Oh, lest we forget. KRFU we are still waiting for the publishing of accounts for the last n years. Please oblige your populace.
KENYA RUGBY : KRFU FINANCES - QUESTIONS GALORE
A reader (Anonymous) but nevertheless a concerned rugby fan has posted the following below which raises concerns/questions/queries on how mismanaged (misappropriated?) the monies that come into rugby through various channels are.
As asked before what is the now clandestine and nocturnal relationship between KRFU, Safari Sevens Ltd and Kenya Rugby Ltd?
Read below at your pleasure but the truth of the matter something must be done, somebody must be accountable and someone definitely has to be transparent.
The KRFU has NOT produced accounts for over two (three?) years. SOYA are you aware? Madam Minister you too?
Many Qns no answers as usual.
Mwanja 1st this one.
BIG RUGBY INVESTMENTAugust 18, 2009
Dreams of hosting one leg of the International Rugby Board Sevens World Series is nearing a reality after the Safari Sevens Limited paid Sh7 million deposit towards the eventual purchase of the adjacent Unga ground on Ngong Road which had been offered for sale.
Richard Omwela, the Kenya Rugby Football Union chairman said the total prize was a staggering Sh70 million. "The deposit has been made possible because of a surplus made by Safari Sevens Limited which is used for capital development," he explained.
Omwela added that the purchase of the prime property was in line with the KRFU's ambition to turn the venue into a huge rugby centre complete with modern facilities.The balance of Sh63 million will require additional input from corporates and Omwela is rallying support from the business community to realise this dream.
In April, Mark Egan, the International Rugby Board Head of Development and Performance said the Rugby Football Union of East Africa ground could not host any IRB World Sevens Series unless a huge investment was made. KRFU took the challenge and this is their answer towards addressing the sentiments expressed by Egan.
Omwela added the immediate challenge was to secure the ground. "We have now made a huge statement and the KRFU, RFUEA and Safari Sevens Board would deliberate the salient issues and come out with a comprehensive development plan. It is a long-term venture which will have to done in phases. We are committed to realise this dream which will usher in a new era for sports," the KRFU chairman added.
In the meantime, the KRFU has got the nod by National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) to sink a borehole at the RFUEA ground. The Patron's Society has availed Sh1.2 million for this project which will alleviate the water problem at the venue. Upto now, the RFUEA ground has relied on water from Impala Club.
MWANJA
Quickly followed by KRFU WOULD LIKE TO RECALL THE PREVIOUSLY SENT MESSAGE RUGBY BIG INVESTMENT APOLOGIES
Is this why junior players were sleeping at Nairobi Skul?????
Why was the message recalled?
is the purchase still on??
I thot Safari sevens was a private co.
How then does KRFU get surplus from the same.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Kenya Rugby : History of the Enterprise Cup 1930 to 2005 - 4
THE ENTERPRISE RUGBY TOUR OF EAST AFRICA
HMS Enterprise was originally scheduled to visit Mombasa in June 1928 and in March of that year the RFUK invited her rugby team to play two matches in Nairobi. The visit was then postponed and the later date seems to have encouraged upcountry clubs to seek matches during the now delayed visit. By early September, the RFUK Honorary Secretary announced that a touring party of thirty would leave Mombasa on Thursday 20th September to play matches at Nakuru, Kitale, Jinja[1], Nakuru (again) and Thika/Ruiru. The second match at Nakuru would be against a Kericho/Londiani XV and the match against the Thika/Ruiru XV would be played in Nairobi to maximise gate-receipts. On their return to Mombasa, the touring party would play their final match against Mombasa Sports Club. The RFUK agreed to take responsibility for all travel arrangements, including the cost of food and drink on the train (what a financially disastrous offer this would have been in a later, less disciplined era) whereas the individual clubs would be responsible for entertainments and could retain any gate money.
As is usual (and often essential) on any rugby tour, the exact history of extracurricular activity pursued by this Naval column during September 1928 remains obscure. The lack of sordid detail might be further explained in this case by a strong suspicion that the tour manager and author of the only record of the tour to have survived was, in fact, the ship’s Chaplain.
RFUK officials waited to meet the eager bluejackets as the train pulled into Nairobi station and entertained them to lunch at the New Stanley Hotel. Suffering the effects of bright sunshine, a substantial meal and copious quantities of alcoholic beverage, the party purchased straw hats, which they painted and decorated with ribbons in Enterprise colours. Rejoining the train, they reached Nakuru in the evening and were whisked off by their hosts to dine ‘…in hospitable homes up to 30 miles from the railway station.’ On the following afternoon the Enterprise XV played against Nakuru and lost by 8 points to 6, not such a bad result at 6000 feet only two days ashore. Nakuru gave them a post-match dinner at the local hotel before both victors and vanquished repaired to the Rift Valley Club where an amateur jazz band was ably assisted by Midshipman Cox’s saxophone until the small hours. The train to Eldoret was scheduled to depart early next morning but only about half of the tourists made it in time, the others catching up by car at various stations along the route. By this time, their coloured and beribboned straw hats were liberally decorated with red and white flamingo feathers and the effect was indeed ‘incredible.’
Cars were waiting at Eldoret station to carry the party to Kitale but even in 1928 there were inevitable obstacles.
‘…a half-way house at Soy contained much of refreshing interest, and many who were first to arrive there were last to arrive at Kitale.’
Impressed by the agricultural wealth of Kitale, they wandered around the town and
‘…purchased shirts of wondrous hues varying from passionate rose to an appealing blue which added a much needed ‘picturesqueness’ to their appearance. Henceforth we ordered our sundowners with a certain flair and talked freely of safaris and shambas.’
This is behaviour that will be all too familiar to the experienced East African rugby tourist.
Later that afternoon the bleary-eyed tarpaulins lost to Kitale by 30 points to 8, having conceded several tries when they ran out of steam towards the end of a relatively even game. The post-match celebration included a dance in Kitale that continued until two o’clock in the morning when the enthusiastic matelots were forced to put away their hornpipes and drive back to Eldoret and catch the 4a.m. train for Uganda. The railhead was then at Jinja and from there the party was ferried along the lakeshore and taken by car to Kampala, arriving late that night in a state of collapse. Next afternoon they performed with unusual vigour in their match against the Uganda Kobs, losing narrowly by 11 points to 6, a defeat they put down to having started the match with only thirteen feet (or sober?) players. The evening entertainment was a stag dinner and concert in a Kampala hotel, the exact menu for which is reproduced here: -
UGANDA KOBS DINNER
TO COMMEMORATE THE VISIT TO UGANDA OF THE RUGGER TEAM OF HMS ENTERPRISE
Hor d’oeuvres
Pate de Fois Gras
Potage Brunoise
Breum au Citron
Lamb Cutlet with Asparagus
Roast Chicken York Ham
Moka Pudding
Prawn Toast
Cheese Coffee Fruits
Some would say that little has changed in East African cuisine over the intervening years.
The tour party cabaret did sterling work during the post prandial concert, particularly that sweet songbird Petty Officer Hayes who ‘…displayed the greatest self-restraint when one of the Kobs sang his particular West Country song.’
HMS Enterprise was originally scheduled to visit Mombasa in June 1928 and in March of that year the RFUK invited her rugby team to play two matches in Nairobi. The visit was then postponed and the later date seems to have encouraged upcountry clubs to seek matches during the now delayed visit. By early September, the RFUK Honorary Secretary announced that a touring party of thirty would leave Mombasa on Thursday 20th September to play matches at Nakuru, Kitale, Jinja[1], Nakuru (again) and Thika/Ruiru. The second match at Nakuru would be against a Kericho/Londiani XV and the match against the Thika/Ruiru XV would be played in Nairobi to maximise gate-receipts. On their return to Mombasa, the touring party would play their final match against Mombasa Sports Club. The RFUK agreed to take responsibility for all travel arrangements, including the cost of food and drink on the train (what a financially disastrous offer this would have been in a later, less disciplined era) whereas the individual clubs would be responsible for entertainments and could retain any gate money.
As is usual (and often essential) on any rugby tour, the exact history of extracurricular activity pursued by this Naval column during September 1928 remains obscure. The lack of sordid detail might be further explained in this case by a strong suspicion that the tour manager and author of the only record of the tour to have survived was, in fact, the ship’s Chaplain.
RFUK officials waited to meet the eager bluejackets as the train pulled into Nairobi station and entertained them to lunch at the New Stanley Hotel. Suffering the effects of bright sunshine, a substantial meal and copious quantities of alcoholic beverage, the party purchased straw hats, which they painted and decorated with ribbons in Enterprise colours. Rejoining the train, they reached Nakuru in the evening and were whisked off by their hosts to dine ‘…in hospitable homes up to 30 miles from the railway station.’ On the following afternoon the Enterprise XV played against Nakuru and lost by 8 points to 6, not such a bad result at 6000 feet only two days ashore. Nakuru gave them a post-match dinner at the local hotel before both victors and vanquished repaired to the Rift Valley Club where an amateur jazz band was ably assisted by Midshipman Cox’s saxophone until the small hours. The train to Eldoret was scheduled to depart early next morning but only about half of the tourists made it in time, the others catching up by car at various stations along the route. By this time, their coloured and beribboned straw hats were liberally decorated with red and white flamingo feathers and the effect was indeed ‘incredible.’
Cars were waiting at Eldoret station to carry the party to Kitale but even in 1928 there were inevitable obstacles.
‘…a half-way house at Soy contained much of refreshing interest, and many who were first to arrive there were last to arrive at Kitale.’
Impressed by the agricultural wealth of Kitale, they wandered around the town and
‘…purchased shirts of wondrous hues varying from passionate rose to an appealing blue which added a much needed ‘picturesqueness’ to their appearance. Henceforth we ordered our sundowners with a certain flair and talked freely of safaris and shambas.’
This is behaviour that will be all too familiar to the experienced East African rugby tourist.
Later that afternoon the bleary-eyed tarpaulins lost to Kitale by 30 points to 8, having conceded several tries when they ran out of steam towards the end of a relatively even game. The post-match celebration included a dance in Kitale that continued until two o’clock in the morning when the enthusiastic matelots were forced to put away their hornpipes and drive back to Eldoret and catch the 4a.m. train for Uganda. The railhead was then at Jinja and from there the party was ferried along the lakeshore and taken by car to Kampala, arriving late that night in a state of collapse. Next afternoon they performed with unusual vigour in their match against the Uganda Kobs, losing narrowly by 11 points to 6, a defeat they put down to having started the match with only thirteen feet (or sober?) players. The evening entertainment was a stag dinner and concert in a Kampala hotel, the exact menu for which is reproduced here: -
UGANDA KOBS DINNER
TO COMMEMORATE THE VISIT TO UGANDA OF THE RUGGER TEAM OF HMS ENTERPRISE
Hor d’oeuvres
Pate de Fois Gras
Potage Brunoise
Breum au Citron
Lamb Cutlet with Asparagus
Roast Chicken York Ham
Moka Pudding
Prawn Toast
Cheese Coffee Fruits
Some would say that little has changed in East African cuisine over the intervening years.
The tour party cabaret did sterling work during the post prandial concert, particularly that sweet songbird Petty Officer Hayes who ‘…displayed the greatest self-restraint when one of the Kobs sang his particular West Country song.’
The party stuttered to a close in the early hours and the tourists boarded the bus that would carry them back to Jinja, which they reached at 0530 hrs.
There were the inevitable laggards, all of whom managed to reach Jinja before the train departed, one after a perilous passage in a dugout canoe. At dawn on Friday 28th September the train reached Nakuru and the unrelenting itinerary continued. That afternoon they played against a XV drawn from Kericho and Londiani, a match they managed to win by 17 points to 9. A dinner dance in the evening was enlivened by their well-practised cabaret and curtailed only by their departure on the midnight train for Nairobi.
The tour party reached Nairobi at 0800 hrs on Saturday morning and in the afternoon they played their final upcountry match against a Thika/Ruiru XV. This they lost by 23 points to 8, a disappointment no doubt compounded by the peculiar decision of the RFUK Committee to entertain their exhausted visitors on this, their last weekend ashore, by taking them to a performance of ‘The Country Girl’ at a nearby Temperance establishment. The dry atmosphere of the theatre seems to have damaged naval signals reporting crew reactions but the perils of dessication were surely faced with that calmness and courage which characterises the British sailor in every crisis on land and sea. One must hope that the only free day on the tour, Sunday 30th September was not devoted entirely to Church parades.
Even as the rugby tourists enjoyed their weekend in Nairobi, the Royal Princes were leaving Mombasa by train to join them, arriving in the capital city on Monday morning, October 1st. The Royal party was met at Nairobi station with great ceremony, though the Enterprise touring team were not on parade. Those sportsmen not nursing monumental hangovers had other priorities. That evening in the presence of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester, several of the rugby touring party participated in the Royal Navy vs Kenya Boxing tournament. The Navy won this contest by seven bouts to five and the Prince of Wales observed that ‘…it was an amusing evening wherein was both science and slogging.’
At noon on 3rd October the wreckage of the Enterprise touring party returned to Mombasa on the overnight train from Nairobi. Only the experienced rugby tourist will understand how it felt to be met at the station by a posse of enthusiasts and to be transported to yet another sports club for yet another braaivleis, a few beers, and the final match of the tour. None were surprised when they were thoroughly drubbed for their pains[2]. The prodigals dragged their battered bodies aboard the cruiser ‘ quaintly dressed in rainbow coloured shirts and incredible hats…’ and no doubt heaved a sigh of relief as the ship was unmoored and her bows turned seawards. If so, they heaved too soon for East Africa was not yet finished with the touring party.
HMS Enterprise steamed from Mombasa straight to Zanzibar, to Dar es Salaam and to Tanga. In each port the Enterprise trugby team took on the local opposition, beating a Zanzibar XV by 14 points to nil, playing two matches against the Dar es Salaam Gymkhana Club (one drawn and one lost) and lending five players to Tanga Club before gaining their final victory of the East African tour.
Naval records suggest that this was the first tour by an RN ship’s team to include both Kenya and Uganda and RFUK records confirm that no other touring party preceded it. During their 12 day terrestrial tour they had travelled more than two thousand miles by rail and by car, been liberally entertained to drinks, dances, dinners and theatrical performances, both amateur and professional, and slept very little, leading almost inevitably to the playing record Won 3, Drawn 1 and Lost 6 (including their subsequent matches in Zanzibar and Tanganyika). If that doesn’t add up to the first ever rugby tour of East Africa, I’ll eat my straw hat and flamingo feather.
At the conclusion of their journey the Tour Manager presented to Mr Wedderburn, Honorary Secretary of the RFUK, an inscribed silver cigarette box as a token of their appreciation for his excellent arrangements. In addition, he formally offered to the RFUK, on behalf of the ship’s company, a silver trophy that they hoped would be awarded annually to the winners of a new Inter-District Championship. Unused to such offers, the RFUK Committee were rather disconcerted. Being somewhat Corinthian in their approach to ‘rugger’ and somewhat averse to competitive sport, they initially declined the offer…or rather they thought they had, because it was at this point that fate intervened.
[1] Jinja was then the railhead where the tourists left the train for onward transport to Kampala and their match against the Uganda Kobs.
[2] At the RFUK Annual Meeting of 1929, a Mr Martin complained that in previous seasons the visiting Naval teams had returned to the Coast in a battered state and were unable to give Mombasa a decent game.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Elgon Cup Leg One
I know i will disagree with many but this is the most unprepared side I have seen play. They did not seem to know how the play against the well drilled, better prepared Ugandan’s, who deserved to win the game especially on account of their second half showing. Individual flashes of brilliance by Biko, Kanyi, Kiptoo and Weku led to our points. The Ugandans however scored through well worked calculated team efforts. Our pack was outmaneuvered by superior technique in both set and open play.
Players:
Daniel Kiptoo Played like a man possessed, if there was a player who wanted the game, it was him. Kiptoo was everywhere making big tackles and getting to his feet to effect turnovers. It amazed me how a prop was sweeping in defence to prevent line breaks by backs. His ball carries and ball presentation was simply awesome. All players in the team should learn from him on how to the complete tackle ends with a turnover.
Vincent Ongera Disastrous line out throws, shoddy hooking, absent at the breakdown. Nil ball carries. Its not only enough to drive back the opponent at the base, you also have to drive over and disrupt the attack.
Edwin Alubaka Don’t remember seeing him in open play save from one ball carry in the second half. Strongly suspect he was amongst those who use the rucks as pillars for resting between play.
Mike Aung The name was selected and not form. Extermely poor line out jumping. I have never seen a forward avoid contact like he did. He looked scared of the ball. Useless at receiving kickoffs. If he is retained in the side for the second leg it will based on other considerations and not merit. Good control of the maul though. But overall very poor with the ball in hand, nil ball carries!!! But if that was the game plan I can only pray.
Antony Ogot Good lineout jumping. Silly penalties that cost us good attacking ball. How such indisciplined players are consistently selected is amazing. If the points, tries, or territory he costs us are more than the tries he creates from winning a line out ball he has no business in the team. The days of selecting a physically weak and lightweight second row only because of lineouts are long gone. If you cannot have stong ball carries then your days are numbered.
Allan Onyango Useless at kickoffs. Effected only two turnovers, his supposed superior fitness and ball handling and contesting skills used as the basis for his selection are debatable based on his showing. A prop (kiptoo) was forced to do his work and clean up his dirt. How can a prop sweep behind the backs to tackle backs who break the line while you are stuck in traffic? Do not remember a single big hit from you.
Andrew Amonde Only remember him getting treatment for an injury and leaving the pitch. Do not remember you tackling or fetching. Very poor day in the office. Also outclassed in loose play by Kiptoo a prop!!! No hits on the slow stuttering Ugandan half back. That should be loosie (loose forward) heaven. Look at how the ladies team loosies were hunting down and nailing the Ugandan backs and turning over the ball.
Wilson Kopondo Eigth mans pick is not a brand of toothpicks! 8-9-14, 9-8-6, etc, are some attacking variations from the base of the scrum. The first breakdown from a scrum should be secured or disrupted by you and your fellow loosie’s. Please spend time with Leslie, Meso, Cullen, Mbaye or the one from the national ladies team. Only remember one big hit from a kickoff. There is more to the tackle than the hit. I.e. the turnover.
Charles Kanyi Brilliant in the open with ball in hand. We all know you are strong and can hold up an eighth man. It is however much more effective to Just go low and contest the turnover with your loosie’s. Ball distribution was too slow and led to turnovers where our rucks were contested, also poor balls from the base of the scrum that put the flyhalf under unnecessary pressure. But another eighth man could have helped you by picking some of the pressure balls.
Lavin Asego What the fuck do you pack in those boots. Those kickoffs are any attacking team’s dream come true. The Indian national rugby team’s pack would have at least recovered some of them. It’s a pity we were so hopeless in this aspect of the game esp after such good ball from you. Your channel was attacked in the second half and there were lots of gaps.
Horace Owiti Two brilliant try saving tackles is my only memory. It’s a pity that our game plan did not revolve around the current top try scorer. If you have such weapons in your arsenal and you keep them locked up, you must be a fool or simply do not understand how to influence a game or bring certain players into the game.
Patrice Agunda If only you could run straight and not sideways! If only you could take more contact and break the defense line. Your first run was straight and gaps opened like a floodgate.
Biko Adema Brilliant.
Dan Weku Brilliant if only he had support when he made his breaks.
Vincent Mose Brilliant hands, positioning and thinking. But you always stayed down after making try saving tackles. Body conditioning required to match the flawless tactical awareness.
Dennis Abenga Why the heck was he on the bench for that long. Thrives on contact with good ball presentation skills. Another one from Jotham Owilis Factory of ruck hungry turnover thirsty kamikaze forwards. If the few minutes of action was a sneak preview i want to see the full show.
Joel Nganga did he come in?
Victor Oduor The missing link. Got into the boiler room and made a contest of the rucks. If he was on the bench purely for tactical reasons that was a serious blunder. This player knows his job on the pitch, and understands a loosie’s role.
Paul Oimbo Strong show, but that knock on!
Peter Mutahi Brilliant distribution and setting of the play. Baseline defense is however a serious flaw!!!
Nato Simiyu Poor options taken at all times ball was in hand. Maybe more time was needed for him to get into the game and express himself.
Naftali Bondo Did he get any ball?
Technical Bench:
No matter how elaborate or brilliant your game plans are, you cannot win if you do not lay your foundations on the basics i.e. Kickoffs, Defensive patterns, Tackling, Lineouts and Scrums. Player availability should never be an excuse for a poor application of basics. You have to coach the available players to understand what is required of them in the pitch. When we persistently knock on from easy kickoffs it shows lack of preparation. When we only have two lineout jumpers in the national team it shows the coaches inability to train others to do the lineout job to increase our options there was also an abject lack of variation in our lineout throws where we are as easy to read as kindergarten kids and can be read six months in advance.
The game was lost in rucks. We were poorly prepared for this aspect of the game. Our rucks were disrupted and turned over at will by the Ugandans. If it were up to me I would very quickly bring in the nakuru coach to work on the forwards. They are the undisputed kings of the turnover whether we like it / (like them) or not.
Our maul defense was shocking and could not cope with a well drilled peeling maul that led to tries. We did not adopt or change our formation to deal with the maul that wheeled towards our posts!!! and made the kicking angles easier.
Our tackling was pathetic in the second half. We could not make full frontal tackles and could only tackle from behind. Uganda realized this too late in the match and their straight running created yawning gaps. It’s a pity our backs cannot run the ball straight into contact. In XV’s rugby you just have to have line breaking centre’s.
The centre’s have to be straight running line breaking strong lads who can take tackles and offload after committing their men.
There is more to the tackle than the hit. A perfect tackle ends with a turnover.
I would also evaluate my player combinations. Kanyi is devastating with ball in hand but poor in distribution from the base of the scrum. For him to work wonders he requires to play with a specialist eighth man who can not only relieve the pressure but also bring him into play.
On lineout’s Kickoffs tackling and defensive rucking our coaches have failed miserably and our team seems to be getting worse by the day. If the team cannot tackle, cannot secure a kickoff, cannot defend a lineout maul, cannot turnover a ruck or secure their own you have no business calling yourself a rugby coach. I wonder what they have been working on for this long. Maybe they should learn a thing or two about coaching from the coach of the ladies team whose well drilled side showed a proper application of basics their results notwithstanding.
The much hyped conditioning program that has been ongoing since last year must either be a joke, very ineffective, or meant to produce other off pitch results.
Although the players selected can do the job (with proper coaching). Current amazing form and proven experience forces me to ask myself. Why the hell the following players and coach are not in the team and technical bench respectively!!!!
Mogere, Meso, Owili.
Players:
Daniel Kiptoo Played like a man possessed, if there was a player who wanted the game, it was him. Kiptoo was everywhere making big tackles and getting to his feet to effect turnovers. It amazed me how a prop was sweeping in defence to prevent line breaks by backs. His ball carries and ball presentation was simply awesome. All players in the team should learn from him on how to the complete tackle ends with a turnover.
Vincent Ongera Disastrous line out throws, shoddy hooking, absent at the breakdown. Nil ball carries. Its not only enough to drive back the opponent at the base, you also have to drive over and disrupt the attack.
Edwin Alubaka Don’t remember seeing him in open play save from one ball carry in the second half. Strongly suspect he was amongst those who use the rucks as pillars for resting between play.
Mike Aung The name was selected and not form. Extermely poor line out jumping. I have never seen a forward avoid contact like he did. He looked scared of the ball. Useless at receiving kickoffs. If he is retained in the side for the second leg it will based on other considerations and not merit. Good control of the maul though. But overall very poor with the ball in hand, nil ball carries!!! But if that was the game plan I can only pray.
Antony Ogot Good lineout jumping. Silly penalties that cost us good attacking ball. How such indisciplined players are consistently selected is amazing. If the points, tries, or territory he costs us are more than the tries he creates from winning a line out ball he has no business in the team. The days of selecting a physically weak and lightweight second row only because of lineouts are long gone. If you cannot have stong ball carries then your days are numbered.
Allan Onyango Useless at kickoffs. Effected only two turnovers, his supposed superior fitness and ball handling and contesting skills used as the basis for his selection are debatable based on his showing. A prop (kiptoo) was forced to do his work and clean up his dirt. How can a prop sweep behind the backs to tackle backs who break the line while you are stuck in traffic? Do not remember a single big hit from you.
Andrew Amonde Only remember him getting treatment for an injury and leaving the pitch. Do not remember you tackling or fetching. Very poor day in the office. Also outclassed in loose play by Kiptoo a prop!!! No hits on the slow stuttering Ugandan half back. That should be loosie (loose forward) heaven. Look at how the ladies team loosies were hunting down and nailing the Ugandan backs and turning over the ball.
Wilson Kopondo Eigth mans pick is not a brand of toothpicks! 8-9-14, 9-8-6, etc, are some attacking variations from the base of the scrum. The first breakdown from a scrum should be secured or disrupted by you and your fellow loosie’s. Please spend time with Leslie, Meso, Cullen, Mbaye or the one from the national ladies team. Only remember one big hit from a kickoff. There is more to the tackle than the hit. I.e. the turnover.
Charles Kanyi Brilliant in the open with ball in hand. We all know you are strong and can hold up an eighth man. It is however much more effective to Just go low and contest the turnover with your loosie’s. Ball distribution was too slow and led to turnovers where our rucks were contested, also poor balls from the base of the scrum that put the flyhalf under unnecessary pressure. But another eighth man could have helped you by picking some of the pressure balls.
Lavin Asego What the fuck do you pack in those boots. Those kickoffs are any attacking team’s dream come true. The Indian national rugby team’s pack would have at least recovered some of them. It’s a pity we were so hopeless in this aspect of the game esp after such good ball from you. Your channel was attacked in the second half and there were lots of gaps.
Horace Owiti Two brilliant try saving tackles is my only memory. It’s a pity that our game plan did not revolve around the current top try scorer. If you have such weapons in your arsenal and you keep them locked up, you must be a fool or simply do not understand how to influence a game or bring certain players into the game.
Patrice Agunda If only you could run straight and not sideways! If only you could take more contact and break the defense line. Your first run was straight and gaps opened like a floodgate.
Biko Adema Brilliant.
Dan Weku Brilliant if only he had support when he made his breaks.
Vincent Mose Brilliant hands, positioning and thinking. But you always stayed down after making try saving tackles. Body conditioning required to match the flawless tactical awareness.
Dennis Abenga Why the heck was he on the bench for that long. Thrives on contact with good ball presentation skills. Another one from Jotham Owilis Factory of ruck hungry turnover thirsty kamikaze forwards. If the few minutes of action was a sneak preview i want to see the full show.
Joel Nganga did he come in?
Victor Oduor The missing link. Got into the boiler room and made a contest of the rucks. If he was on the bench purely for tactical reasons that was a serious blunder. This player knows his job on the pitch, and understands a loosie’s role.
Paul Oimbo Strong show, but that knock on!
Peter Mutahi Brilliant distribution and setting of the play. Baseline defense is however a serious flaw!!!
Nato Simiyu Poor options taken at all times ball was in hand. Maybe more time was needed for him to get into the game and express himself.
Naftali Bondo Did he get any ball?
Technical Bench:
No matter how elaborate or brilliant your game plans are, you cannot win if you do not lay your foundations on the basics i.e. Kickoffs, Defensive patterns, Tackling, Lineouts and Scrums. Player availability should never be an excuse for a poor application of basics. You have to coach the available players to understand what is required of them in the pitch. When we persistently knock on from easy kickoffs it shows lack of preparation. When we only have two lineout jumpers in the national team it shows the coaches inability to train others to do the lineout job to increase our options there was also an abject lack of variation in our lineout throws where we are as easy to read as kindergarten kids and can be read six months in advance.
The game was lost in rucks. We were poorly prepared for this aspect of the game. Our rucks were disrupted and turned over at will by the Ugandans. If it were up to me I would very quickly bring in the nakuru coach to work on the forwards. They are the undisputed kings of the turnover whether we like it / (like them) or not.
Our maul defense was shocking and could not cope with a well drilled peeling maul that led to tries. We did not adopt or change our formation to deal with the maul that wheeled towards our posts!!! and made the kicking angles easier.
Our tackling was pathetic in the second half. We could not make full frontal tackles and could only tackle from behind. Uganda realized this too late in the match and their straight running created yawning gaps. It’s a pity our backs cannot run the ball straight into contact. In XV’s rugby you just have to have line breaking centre’s.
The centre’s have to be straight running line breaking strong lads who can take tackles and offload after committing their men.
There is more to the tackle than the hit. A perfect tackle ends with a turnover.
I would also evaluate my player combinations. Kanyi is devastating with ball in hand but poor in distribution from the base of the scrum. For him to work wonders he requires to play with a specialist eighth man who can not only relieve the pressure but also bring him into play.
On lineout’s Kickoffs tackling and defensive rucking our coaches have failed miserably and our team seems to be getting worse by the day. If the team cannot tackle, cannot secure a kickoff, cannot defend a lineout maul, cannot turnover a ruck or secure their own you have no business calling yourself a rugby coach. I wonder what they have been working on for this long. Maybe they should learn a thing or two about coaching from the coach of the ladies team whose well drilled side showed a proper application of basics their results notwithstanding.
The much hyped conditioning program that has been ongoing since last year must either be a joke, very ineffective, or meant to produce other off pitch results.
Although the players selected can do the job (with proper coaching). Current amazing form and proven experience forces me to ask myself. Why the hell the following players and coach are not in the team and technical bench respectively!!!!
Mogere, Meso, Owili.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Elgon Cup Update - Kenya 30 Uganda 22
As predicted, score first and fast, but a good show all the same. Biko Adema with a brace of tries, Wilson K'Opondo amd Dan Weku with one each and one I'll credit to the pack in general was good enough. Our goal kicking was off and will definitely be the decider in Kampala. Have a good weekend. I'm at the Heineken.
Nothing But Love For You
You are my neighbour, and my good friend. We share a common fence and many other things. And for that reason, I'm pleased to let known, I've got nothing but love you.
At times I call you brother, other times I call you foe, that we cannot do without each other, is clear for all to see. That just goes to make all know, I've got nothing but love for you.
I brought you up, I taught you to walk. Some say I taught you to run and I taught you to play. At some point you felt better than me, but me being bigger than you, I've got nothing but love for you.
Some call it love, some call it hate, some call it a passion, and will never forsake you. I've got nothing but love for you.
Because of that love, I bring in everything, the Elgon Cup and my World Rankings. All you bring is yourself, and it just proves, I've got nothing but love for you.
All the best my friend, all the best by brother, but with all the love I've got for you, I'm gonna fix you.
Wishing Kenya Rugby XV all the best this afternoon.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Weekend Games
Kenya Cup action takes a break as the twin header Elgon Cup takes place in Nairobi. The women's teams will curtain raise for the men's from 2.00 p.m. I have not seen any of the training sessions but I will make some comments below.
The Kenya women's team seem to have a very focused and dedicated coach in Sammy Kemmey. He has religiously taken the team through the paces and I have seen him mete out workouts to the fair ladies that would make three quarters of the senior men's team walk out of the squad. That also says a lot for the commitment and the determination of the ladies in the squad. A few years ago, the Uganda ladies beat them 55-0 and were the laughing stock of Kampala. I'm sure they vowed "never again". Last year's match narrowly went the Kenyan way. The team is now much fitter and more skilled. They have also been together much longer. Just from sheer fitness, I see Kenya running out 14 point victors.
The men's game is definitely going to be the highlight. The two teams are always rearing for a fight, like neighbouring pit bulls and with the added frustration at their common sponsor pulling out at the last minute, the grass will surely suffer! The main fight for supremacy will be in the forwards, as both sides fancy their forwards a great deal. I think Uganda will win this battle marginally. They have better conditioned players and coming off the back of an unsuccessful World Cup campaign, they still have the drilling and tactics imposed on them by their South African coaches. The backrow battle should be won by Kenya, as will the half back battle, purely due to experience. I however feel the midfield will belong to Uganda once more whilst the battle out wide will be evenly matched. This deadlock will be broken by how both sides use their full back and in this respect I believe Vincent Mose will come out tops -- depending on Patrice Agunda's ability not to fold under the pressure of the Ugandan rush defence. My take, a see saw evenly balanced match, ending in Kenya's favour by 12 points.
I was going to leave it there as I as feeling sufficiently patriotic but some things must be said. Having watched a few league matches, I'd say we are playing 7's in 15's and that has always been my fear. We do not have too much structure in our play, nor too much pattern. We hope for flashes of individual brilliance and hope to score off that. Barring that we are clueless and just go through the phases. I expect the same tomorrow as the team has not trained enough on its own (being kind to technical). Do not expect too much from the phase play and as we expect the defence to be extremely solid on both sides, we will run out of ideas very quickly after the third phase, more quickly than they. And that will hold the key to the match. Score quickly/easily or suffer!! Looking at the team we have thrown everything in at the start and are only covering positions with the substitutes, not tactics. Therefore expect no change in style, pace or strategy with the substitutions, save for Paul Oimbo who will be quickly brought in
Kenya Women's Team: Millicent Opalla (Mwamba Invaders), Janet Midecha (Vivi Girls), Dorcas Ocholi (Mwamba Invaders), Florence Awuor (Vivi Girls), Robinah Wambui (Vivi Girls), Kezia Adhiambo (Vivi Girls), Adeline Nasambu (Mwamba Invaders), Irene Awino (Mwamba Invaders), Irene Nyakundi (Mwamba Invaders), Mary Musieka (Mwamba Invaders), Mary Otieno (Mwamba Invaders), Camilyne Awuor (Mwamba Invaders), Rebecca Kerubo (Mwamba Invaders), Rachael Adhiambo (Mwamba Invaders), Angela Olum (Mwamba Invaders) Stacy Awuor (Vivi Girls), Abedine Shikhoi (Mwamba Invaders), Doreen Remour (Mwamba Invaders) Philadelphia Olando (Mwamba Invaders), Judy Agengo (Mwamba Invaders), Anita Omondi (Mwamba Invaders), Celestine Navalayo ( Captain )(Mwamba Invaders)
Kenya Men's Team: Daniel Kiptoo, Vincent Ong'era (Kenya Harlequin FC), Edwin Alubaka (KCB), Michael Aung (Nondescripts RUFC, Captain), Anthony Ogot (KCB), Allan Onyango (Quins), Andrew Amonde (KCB), Wilson Kopondo (Mean Machine), Charles Kanyi (Nondies), Lavin Asego (Mwamba RFC, vice captain), Horace Otieno (Mwamba), Patrice Agunda (Quins), Biko Adema (Nondies), Dan Weku (Impala RFC), Vincent Mose (Impala RFC), Dennis Abenga (Nakuru RFC), Joel Ng'ang'a (Quins), Victor Oduor (Quins), Paul Oimbo (Impala RFC), Peter Mutai (KCB), Nato Simiyu (Impala RFC), Naftaly Bondo (Quins).
Uganda Men's Team: Ronald Adigasi, Brian Odongo, Solomon Mawanda, P. Barigye, Brian Makalama, Alex Mubiru, Eric Butiime, Ronnie Mwisaka, Mathias Ochwo, L. Kinyongo, Moses Soita, Robert Seguya, Allan Matsiko, P. Karumuna, Paul Kabazzi, George-Scott Oluoch, Anthony Kinene, Joel Anguyo, Dennis Etuket, Jonathan 'Bishop' Onen, Chris Lubanga, O. Ochulu, Michael Wokorach, Benon Kiiza, D. Canowira, B. Jemba, Joel Kimuli and R. Ogwal.
Teams and poster courtesy of KRFU.
ELGON CUP : Kenya ready to thrash Uganda
My mama and I will be sitting at the RFUEA supporting Kenya as we take on Uganda tomorrow. Kenya must win and must win big tomorrow. Good Luck Kenya and good luck to the new Captain Mike Aung. (It could have been Kopo on another occasion.
Uganda must go down and as coach Tank Otieno said on TV by 50 points. Kenya Rugby Juu with or without sponsors.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Breaking News: Rugby for the Olympic Games?
Not quite yet. But the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee have recommended that Rugby, alongside Golf, be included in the Olympic Games from 2016. The entire entire 106-member Assembly will meet to vote on whether to accept the sports or not in October of this year. You can read more here and here. Just a cautionary word from the archives.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Elgon Cup on Despite Hiccup
Both the Kenya Rugby Football Union and the Uganda Rugby Union have decided to go on with the planned Elgon Cup fixtures despite the untimely withdrawal of East African Breweries as the sponsor for the matches. This leaves the two unions to dig deep into their pockets to foot the expenses to be incurred. The players may also have to forego some of the comfort they are accustomed to during such assignments. The Women's teams from both countries are also scheduled to curtain raise for the Men and this increases the expenses. Both unions will now rely heavily on the gate takings to offset the costs. As such we must all turn out in large numbers to support the teams on both sides of Migingo the border.
The Kenya Men's Team is as below.
1. Daniel Kiptoo - Harlequins
2. Vincent Ongera - Harlequins
3. Edwin Alubaka - KCB
4. Mike Aung ( Captain ) - Nondies
5. Anthony Ogot - KCB
6. Allan Onyango - Harlequins
7. Andrew Amonde - KCB
8. Wilson Kopondo - Mean Machine
9. Charles Kanyi - Nondies
10. Lavin Asego - Mwamba
11. Horace Owiti - Mwamba
12. Patrice Angunda - Harlequins
13. Biko Adema - Nondies
14. Dan Weku - France
15. Vincent Mose - Impala
16. Dennis Ambenga - Nakuru
17. Joel Ng’ang’a - Harlequins
18. Victor Oduor - Harlequins
19. Paul Oimbo - Impala
20. Peter Mutai - KCB
21. Nato Simiyu - Impala
22. Naftali Bondo - Harlequins
23. Michael Otieno - Head Coach
24. Edward Kinyany - Assistant Coach
25. Charles Ngovi - Assistant Coach
26. Wangila Simiyu - Team Manager
27. Christopher Makachia - Physiotherapist
Comments: It is good that an experienced sevens trio have got the back row job. They should use their superior fitness, one on one tackling skills and advanced ball contesting experience to make every break down a nightmare for the Ugandans (I wish). The mid-field pairing is interesting.. I have doubts as to how Agunda will weather the rush defence and ruthless tackling the Ugandan backs are famed for, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Adema should combine well with Mose from the back and either of his wingers. If only the two used some brain at times and not just brawn, they may cause a nightmare for the Ugandans out wide. Asego's control and position finding will be key as well as his ability to move the ball quickly into space from congested areas.
The forwards battle will be mighty and I think will be drawn between the two sides. I don't think the forwards are very imaginative save for "go to Kiptoo" so we expect a lot of that. And the South African influence on the Ugandan game will also make that their preferred route. There will be no mixing of play between the forwards and the backs, the players either completely unwilling to comprehend such tactics or the technical team unable to translate it for them. So expect to see a lot of staccato play interspersed with sheer moments of brilliance from the backs.
All in all, we wish the lads well and please do turn up in large numbers to cheer the lads on.
The Kenya Men's Team is as below.
1. Daniel Kiptoo - Harlequins
2. Vincent Ongera - Harlequins
3. Edwin Alubaka - KCB
4. Mike Aung ( Captain ) - Nondies
5. Anthony Ogot - KCB
6. Allan Onyango - Harlequins
7. Andrew Amonde - KCB
8. Wilson Kopondo - Mean Machine
9. Charles Kanyi - Nondies
10. Lavin Asego - Mwamba
11. Horace Owiti - Mwamba
12. Patrice Angunda - Harlequins
13. Biko Adema - Nondies
14. Dan Weku - France
15. Vincent Mose - Impala
16. Dennis Ambenga - Nakuru
17. Joel Ng’ang’a - Harlequins
18. Victor Oduor - Harlequins
19. Paul Oimbo - Impala
20. Peter Mutai - KCB
21. Nato Simiyu - Impala
22. Naftali Bondo - Harlequins
23. Michael Otieno - Head Coach
24. Edward Kinyany - Assistant Coach
25. Charles Ngovi - Assistant Coach
26. Wangila Simiyu - Team Manager
27. Christopher Makachia - Physiotherapist
Comments: It is good that an experienced sevens trio have got the back row job. They should use their superior fitness, one on one tackling skills and advanced ball contesting experience to make every break down a nightmare for the Ugandans (I wish). The mid-field pairing is interesting.. I have doubts as to how Agunda will weather the rush defence and ruthless tackling the Ugandan backs are famed for, but let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Adema should combine well with Mose from the back and either of his wingers. If only the two used some brain at times and not just brawn, they may cause a nightmare for the Ugandans out wide. Asego's control and position finding will be key as well as his ability to move the ball quickly into space from congested areas.
The forwards battle will be mighty and I think will be drawn between the two sides. I don't think the forwards are very imaginative save for "go to Kiptoo" so we expect a lot of that. And the South African influence on the Ugandan game will also make that their preferred route. There will be no mixing of play between the forwards and the backs, the players either completely unwilling to comprehend such tactics or the technical team unable to translate it for them. So expect to see a lot of staccato play interspersed with sheer moments of brilliance from the backs.
All in all, we wish the lads well and please do turn up in large numbers to cheer the lads on.
Kenya Rugby : History of the Enterprise Cup 1930 to 2005 - 3
HMS ENTERPRISE
The first Royal Navy vessel to carry the name ‘Enterprise’ was the French corvette L’Entreprenante, captured in 1705, bought by the Admiralty and renamed HMS Enterprise. She was followed by seven more RN vessels of that name, some of which took part in important actions including the capture of Quebec, the bombardment of Vigo, the capture of Havana, the War of American Independence and the search for Sir John Franklin’s Arctic expedition.
The ninth HMS Enterprise was an ‘E’ class cruiser (7580 tons) built on the Clyde as the First World War ended and not commissioned until April 1926. After several months in home waters she sailed for the East Indies station, an assignment that lasted until December 1928. She undertook several subsequent commissions on the East Indies station, twelve years in total, and entered the Reserve fleet in 1938.
The outbreak of the Second World War saw HMS Enterprise brought out of mothballs and re-commissioned for the protection of Atlantic convoys. Attached to the Home Fleet in 1940 she participated in the Norwegian campaign (surviving an attack by the submarine U65) and in the bombardment of the Vichy French fleet at Mersa-el-Kebir. She then progressed through convoy protection in the South Atlantic to the more familiar waters of the East Indies station where she rescued survivors from HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire, sunk by Japanese aircraft off Trincomalee. Returning from the Indian Ocean in December 1942, she battled through fierce storm off the Azores in a vain attempt to rescue survivors from the torpedoed Shaw Saville liner, ss Ceramic. On 28th December 1943, eleven German destroyers ventured into the Bay of Biscay to escort the ss Alsterufer, an incoming blockade-runner. They had the misfortune to run into HMS Enterprise and HMS Glasgow and after a brisk exchange of fore, three destroyers were sunk and four damaged beyond repair. (There is a peculiar East African connection here since an earlier HMS Glasgow, a wooden-hulled steam frigate of the East India squadron, had visited Zanzibar in 1873. Her size and power encouraged the Sultan of Zanzibar to procure his own armed steamship, also called Glasgow, which RN warships shelled and sank in Zanzibar harbour during the shortest war in history on the morning of 27 August 1896.)
The first Royal Navy vessel to carry the name ‘Enterprise’ was the French corvette L’Entreprenante, captured in 1705, bought by the Admiralty and renamed HMS Enterprise. She was followed by seven more RN vessels of that name, some of which took part in important actions including the capture of Quebec, the bombardment of Vigo, the capture of Havana, the War of American Independence and the search for Sir John Franklin’s Arctic expedition.
The ninth HMS Enterprise was an ‘E’ class cruiser (7580 tons) built on the Clyde as the First World War ended and not commissioned until April 1926. After several months in home waters she sailed for the East Indies station, an assignment that lasted until December 1928. She undertook several subsequent commissions on the East Indies station, twelve years in total, and entered the Reserve fleet in 1938.
The outbreak of the Second World War saw HMS Enterprise brought out of mothballs and re-commissioned for the protection of Atlantic convoys. Attached to the Home Fleet in 1940 she participated in the Norwegian campaign (surviving an attack by the submarine U65) and in the bombardment of the Vichy French fleet at Mersa-el-Kebir. She then progressed through convoy protection in the South Atlantic to the more familiar waters of the East Indies station where she rescued survivors from HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire, sunk by Japanese aircraft off Trincomalee. Returning from the Indian Ocean in December 1942, she battled through fierce storm off the Azores in a vain attempt to rescue survivors from the torpedoed Shaw Saville liner, ss Ceramic. On 28th December 1943, eleven German destroyers ventured into the Bay of Biscay to escort the ss Alsterufer, an incoming blockade-runner. They had the misfortune to run into HMS Enterprise and HMS Glasgow and after a brisk exchange of fore, three destroyers were sunk and four damaged beyond repair. (There is a peculiar East African connection here since an earlier HMS Glasgow, a wooden-hulled steam frigate of the East India squadron, had visited Zanzibar in 1873. Her size and power encouraged the Sultan of Zanzibar to procure his own armed steamship, also called Glasgow, which RN warships shelled and sank in Zanzibar harbour during the shortest war in history on the morning of 27 August 1896.)
Although her record of service reflects credit on the Royal Navy, HMS Enterprise is probably the best remembered in East Africa for her part in the peacetime events of 1928. The summer started innocuously enough when she was ordered home at the end of her first commission, routing through Mauritius and the main ports of East Africa. This cruise was her first venture into the Southern Hemisphere and the usual high jinks at the Court of King Neptune accompanied the crossing of the equator. One officer of somewhat lyrical bent described Mombasa as they steamed into Kilindini harbour on 19th September:
‘…our first impression was that we had arrived at a new bungalow town on the south coast of Devon. The red soil and green grass, the golf course leading down the rocky foreshore, all tended to strengthen the illusion..The town is laid out on modern lines and on the outskirts new houses are dotted about forming a garden suburb.’
The cruise was so timed that HMS Enterprise would be at Mombasa when a party of Very Important Persons arrived from England. Imminent VIP visit or not, the Royal Navy has its priorities in order and on the day after their arrival the ship’s rugby touring party accompanied by ‘...its staff, official and otherwise…’ left Mombasa by train at the start of their East African tour.
THE ROYAL VISIT TO EAST AFRICA – BEGINNING
Edward, Prince of Wales, and his younger brother Henry, Duke of Gloucester, arrived in Mombasa aboard the ss Malda on Septemebr 28th 1928 to undertake a semi-official visit to Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika and to indulge their interest in big game hunting. No sooner was the anchor down than ‘…the launch of HMS Enterprise shot alongside in the dazzling White Ensign manner that looks as though it were about to ram you but in reality is the sign manual of an efficient coxswain.’ Captain Pridham-Wipple of Enterprise and Captain Campbell, ADC to the Governor of Kenya had come to ferry the Royal Princes ashore. That evening they attended a dinner at Government House and danced to music provided by the band of the 3rd Battalion Kings Africa Rifles and the highly proficient jazz band of HMS Enterprise.
Their second official engagement in Kenya was to play golf, joining the Enterprise golf team for their match against Mombasa Club. After suffering a massive defeat the Princes drowned their sorrows in cocktails and dinner with the ship’s company. This first experience of golf in East Africa led to the following entry in the royal diary: -
“To those accustomed only to the classic bent of Berwick and the east coast route an African course is a nightmare. Take any bit of loose sea-beach that lies above the high-water mark, add to it three ploughed fields and a meadow trampled by cattle and you will have the Royal and Ancient of Africa, further enlivened by the spoor of a hippo, the greens that blow away as a man is about to putt, the line of caddies…”
Next evening saw the Royal party depart on the overnight train for Nairobi and the delights of hunting two-legged game amongst the tangled undergrowth of Kenyan society. HMS Enterprise was left in peace at hr moorings in Mombasa harbour, refuelled, revictualed and refreshed awaiting only the return of her rugby touring party.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Caveat Emptor
PRIME PROPERTY FOR LEASE
This property has immense value. It is the hottest property in Kenya at the moment. It is almost the hottest property in Africa as well. This advert appears as a governance guideline requirement, not as a requisite. Our phone is ringing off the hook for takers, but our procurement/disposal rules require that we put this public announcement in order not to exclude any potential interested parties.
The property had been fallow for several years, relatively unused. The previous tenant took it up as it was and gently nurtured it. Ensuring all outstanding rates were paid and the property adequately maintained. All utility and general maintenance bills were paid and slow but sure upgrades were done to the property. In the last three years, the property got a sub tenant who took up all running costs of the property and ensured the property was problem free. The sub tenant also took up major rehabilitation works on the property and has ensured that the net worth of the property has trebled in the period they have been tenants.
This property has immense value. It is the hottest property in Kenya at the moment. It is almost the hottest property in Africa as well. This advert appears as a governance guideline requirement, not as a requisite. Our phone is ringing off the hook for takers, but our procurement/disposal rules require that we put this public announcement in order not to exclude any potential interested parties.
The property had been fallow for several years, relatively unused. The previous tenant took it up as it was and gently nurtured it. Ensuring all outstanding rates were paid and the property adequately maintained. All utility and general maintenance bills were paid and slow but sure upgrades were done to the property. In the last three years, the property got a sub tenant who took up all running costs of the property and ensured the property was problem free. The sub tenant also took up major rehabilitation works on the property and has ensured that the net worth of the property has trebled in the period they have been tenants.
The existing tenant and sub tenant say they are now unable to help us get the property up to the level we think it should be and as such we have no further need for them. The previous tenants also do not value the opportunity we have given to be associated with this property whilst many, many others would pay even more for the same opportunity. With immediate effect, we are therefore looking for a tenant or tenants to lease the property to. As stated the property is of immense value and more so the intrinsic less so the extrinsic value. Do not be so concerned as to our manners and how we will treat you once we fall out, but more what you are buying into and the future you are securing for the youth of this great country. Think not so much about what we will do with your money, but more about what your money would be doing for you once we have it. Worry not as to whether our whole family will be happy with the way we spend your money, worry more about whether the nuclear family is happy and content with what they are gaining as individuals. As such we expect you to come with open wallets and closed minds as you invest in this once in a lifetime opportunity!
I have been feeling a bit like Dataminer and had lost the urge to post on this blog. However I feel the way the KRFU are treating EABL for pulling out of the Elgon Cup hugely unfair. As much as it is also wrong for EABL to pull out at the umpteenth hour, there is such a thing as gratitude. That EABL are not being explicit in their reasons for pulling out (save that it is not a prudent business decision - a thing KRFU knows little about) speaks more volumes than it would by saying it. EABL are one of the prominent corporate entities in this part of the world and their silence reads more like "they would rather not say"! And for the top dog of the KRFU himself to come out bad-mouthing EABL in public fora is extremely disappointing to say the least. That they think it is their right to be sponsored just shows how the union is managed and ran. EABL have been behind KRFU when no one else would touch them. They have built the Safari Sevens to what it is today and rescued the Elgon Cup when Kenya Airways pulled out, also at the umpteenth hour. KRFU should just have written a fitting epitaph to the relationship and called it a death... rather than a divorce!! We all know divorces are acrimonious and results in knives being drawn.
I go back to my shell.
Monday, August 10, 2009
CAR u19 Africa Rugby Championship 2009 Kenya
(posted from RFUEA by kind permission)
Kenya lose Plate Final to Tunisia 28 - 11
u19 Kenya 11
u19 Tunisia 28
Kenya tried but were simply not in it. Hard luck.
Zimbabwe were the eventual winners of the event with an emphatic 39-7 drubbing of Namibia.
Now we focus on the seniors Kenya 15's as they face Uganda in the (?) Elgon Cup first leg on Sato. Team to be named by Wednesday.
News out is that captain Ian Namcos Simiyu will not play as he is injured as EABL pull out from sponsoring Elgon Cup.
Kenya lose Plate Final to Tunisia 28 - 11
u19 Kenya 11
u19 Tunisia 28
Kenya tried but were simply not in it. Hard luck.
Zimbabwe were the eventual winners of the event with an emphatic 39-7 drubbing of Namibia.
Now we focus on the seniors Kenya 15's as they face Uganda in the (?) Elgon Cup first leg on Sato. Team to be named by Wednesday.
News out is that captain Ian Namcos Simiyu will not play as he is injured as EABL pull out from sponsoring Elgon Cup.
Kenya Cup - Week 9
And topsy turvy it went, as expected. As usual missed some and got some. Mwamba rose to the occasion and overcame KCB at home. The surprise package was Machine pulling off a draw in Nakuru. Just reading the signs, I think Nakuru grossly underrated their opponents and paid the price. Telling in this is do they have the mien of champions? They have the players, they have the skill, but twice already, they've paid the ultimate price for complacency and dropped crucial points.
As a result, Impala leapfrog both KCB and Nakuru to lead the standings, though level in points with Nakuru who lie second. KCB are now third, Harlequins fourth and Mwamba fifth. Only three points separate these five teams so that tells you how tight the race is. And how the teams play the supposed minnows will surely be the deciding factor. And with all three now getting their act together, some good giant felling tales will be told in the bars soon.
Do have a good week and enjoy your rugby. The Under 19 Championships conclude today at the RFUEA grounds. Kenya play in the plate finals.
As a result, Impala leapfrog both KCB and Nakuru to lead the standings, though level in points with Nakuru who lie second. KCB are now third, Harlequins fourth and Mwamba fifth. Only three points separate these five teams so that tells you how tight the race is. And how the teams play the supposed minnows will surely be the deciding factor. And with all three now getting their act together, some good giant felling tales will be told in the bars soon.
Do have a good week and enjoy your rugby. The Under 19 Championships conclude today at the RFUEA grounds. Kenya play in the plate finals.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Kenya Cup Results 08/08/09
Impala 19 Nondies 13 KCB 22 Mwamba 28 Quins 51 Strathmore 7 Nakuru 10 Machine 10.
Kenya Rugby 7's : Breaking News - Collins Injera and Humphrey Khayange in Samurai Dream Team for Middlesex Sevens 2009
Breaking News:
Collins Injera and Humphrey Khayange have been included in the start studded Samurai dream team scheduled to take part in the 2009 Middlesex Sevens. The brothers who have been outstanding on the 2009 IRB Sevens Circuit get their just reward by being named in a team that is as follows:
Samurai Squad: Tony Roques, Ben Gollings, Simon Amor, Michael Fedo, Chase Minnaar, Marius Schoeman, Ryno Benjamin, Tim Walsh, Willy Bishop, Collins Injera, Humphrey Khayange.
As Kenyas rugby ambassadors at the Middlesex Sevens but no strangers to Twickenham we wish them all the best.
Samurai will play Northampton Saints in the first round.
With this exciting development for the two most popular rugby playing brothers in Kenya, they definitely will not be featuring in the first leg leg of the 2009 Elgon Cup versus Uganda and that is indeed a big blow for Kenya 15's.
In other news Kenya u19 were convincingly beaten 29-3 by Namibia u19. Kenya's hopes of featuring as Africas representatives in the 2010 IRB JWRT in Argentina have come to a cropper. Disappointing indeed.
Collins Injera and Humphrey Khayange have been included in the start studded Samurai dream team scheduled to take part in the 2009 Middlesex Sevens. The brothers who have been outstanding on the 2009 IRB Sevens Circuit get their just reward by being named in a team that is as follows:
Samurai Squad: Tony Roques, Ben Gollings, Simon Amor, Michael Fedo, Chase Minnaar, Marius Schoeman, Ryno Benjamin, Tim Walsh, Willy Bishop, Collins Injera, Humphrey Khayange.
As Kenyas rugby ambassadors at the Middlesex Sevens but no strangers to Twickenham we wish them all the best.
Samurai will play Northampton Saints in the first round.
With this exciting development for the two most popular rugby playing brothers in Kenya, they definitely will not be featuring in the first leg leg of the 2009 Elgon Cup versus Uganda and that is indeed a big blow for Kenya 15's.
In other news Kenya u19 were convincingly beaten 29-3 by Namibia u19. Kenya's hopes of featuring as Africas representatives in the 2010 IRB JWRT in Argentina have come to a cropper. Disappointing indeed.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Kenya Cup: Nakuru eager to host Mean Machine
Want to rush and watch Kenya u19 vs Namibia u19 at KRFUEA. Good luck boys.
As for Mean Machine the comrades have a toughie this weekend versus
high flying Nakuru. But in the game of rugby anything can happen. The
worrying thing is we are at the bottom and is relegation looming?
Doubt it as there are too many reasons and factors at other levels to
ensure that doesn't happen. On the pitch Ayimba and Kopo will steer
the bobobobo crew to safety.
A second trip in two weeks, my mama and I will be in Nakuru for the
game tomorrow. No Egerton sideshows this time as its strictly rugby
and then back on Sunday. Go Machine Go.
Weekend Games
Kenya Cup week 9 and not without controversy it seems. Once more international rugby takes the fore and the rest is sidelined. Interesting to note that despite many ground/field management courses availed and attended, KRFU seem to think the best way to maintain a ground in perfect playing condition is to close it off from use. Methinks that's how to maintain a paddock for animal pasture.. but then again, that's just me! Once more we have been caught by surprise that there is a major tournament we need to host.
Top placed KCB will host Mwamba in Ruaraka. Second placed Nakuru host Mean Machine in the Rift Valley. Third placed Impala host Nondies and fifth placed Quins host?? Strathmore. The race is hotting up and as it stands any of the top five teams have still have a chance at the trophy. With five very strong teams at the top, it means a loss is inevitable every weekend for each of those teams.. let's see how the cookie crumbles. My calls, Mwamba over KCB by five points. Nakuru with a bonus point victory over Machine. Impala by ten points over Nondies, and Quins with bonus point victory over Strathmore. That will make for interesting shuffling on the league table.
Do have a great rugby weekend. Remember to support our boys as they play in the Semi Finals against Namibia later today.
League standings below courtesy of www.kenyarfu.com.
Top placed KCB will host Mwamba in Ruaraka. Second placed Nakuru host Mean Machine in the Rift Valley. Third placed Impala host Nondies and fifth placed Quins host?? Strathmore. The race is hotting up and as it stands any of the top five teams have still have a chance at the trophy. With five very strong teams at the top, it means a loss is inevitable every weekend for each of those teams.. let's see how the cookie crumbles. My calls, Mwamba over KCB by five points. Nakuru with a bonus point victory over Machine. Impala by ten points over Nondies, and Quins with bonus point victory over Strathmore. That will make for interesting shuffling on the league table.
Do have a great rugby weekend. Remember to support our boys as they play in the Semi Finals against Namibia later today.
League standings below courtesy of www.kenyarfu.com.
Kenya Rugby : CAR Africa Under 19 Championships 2009 Kenya
To The Team Managers,
Zimbabwe, Namibia, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco, Uganda, Zambia, Kenya B (and Ivory Coast).
Topic: CAR AFRICA UNDER 19 RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP 2009 KENYA
On behalf of the genuine and unscruplous rugby fraternity in Kenya, we would like to sincerely apologise for the shoddy, unprofessional, unacceptable and pathetic treatment you have received since your arrival in Kenya early this week. It has been shameful and embarassing for us to see how the organisers (IRB = Impala Rugby Business a.k.a. KRFU) have treated all the teams since their arrival. One wonders whether there were any preparataions made in the first place.
To Ivory Coast we would like to commend and congratulate you for keeping away from this event. Your under 19's are much safer at home than here. That we can vouch for you and the press have made no secret about it both the local (Nation and EA Standard) and Zimbabwean.
For the ones that made it to Nairobi unfortunately, the organisers will surely want to blame the AGOA and Hillary Clinton for all the substandard accomodation and treatment at Nairobi School so far. Don't forget CAR (Confederation of Africa Rugby) did not send money for the tournament on time. They are still waiting for it and it most probably will arrive once you are back safely home in your countries.
It has been a hard year for KRFU. They have been busy with the Kenya 7's, Bamburi Super 4, Impala Floodlit, JWRT and Safari Sevens to remember to look for sponsors for this small African tournament. The KRFU is extremely tired and in need of a serious (permanent) vacation.
But also remember your teams are still young so they dont have to stay at Panafric like during the JWRT. That was a bonus then as Nairobi School was in session otherwise all the teams would have been booked there. Why are the Kenyan teams complaining as well this time? You should be happy as usually don't get accomodation or bus fare. Think about the exposure. Charity begins at home.
Zimbabwe, you have done well to move out to a hotel. Seems you have extra money saved since you were actually meant to host this tournament in the first place. But KRFU heard there was cholera in Zimbabwe so they applied and snatched the tournament from you. Pity they didn't have the sponsors addresses as well otherwise those would have been here too. Next time.
We hope Namimbia are with you in the same hotel too. Uganda and Zambia are ok. They can stay at Nairobi School. After all the bus they came with dropped them there from Kampala. Zambians seem to have used the same route too.
Morocco and Tunisia surely must be staying at Grand Regency (Laaico). Can't imagine them at Nairobi School for one second. The taps were dry due to the on-going water rationing programme in Nairobi. Thats why the pitch at KRFU is also looking a bit dry but don't worry this time SuperSport are not there to film it. There is also a countrywide electricity raitioning programme so we could not risk your teams getting stuck in the lifts at Panafric. KRFU will make sure they include the water and electricity rationing programmes in the info pack next time.
As there are no sponsors and no funds from CAR, the only income this time around is the gate collections so don't hold your breath for any accounts after the tournament. That is a common practice by the KRFU. Why on earth would the Tournament Director (is he qualifed?) be the brother of the KRFU Treasurer (is he qualified?) if not for a massive cover up once again? At least the pleasant short energetic lady (JWRT) is more qualified (graduate?) than the CAR Tournament Director.
Rugbywise see you at the grounds as we support Kenya taking on Namibia today at 5pm. At least the one thing the fraternity can give them with no strings attached is fans support.
Truth of the matter is once again the KRFU leadership has let the country down. Just like the country's political leadership this week, you have been exposed severely.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Weekly Ramble
I don't know how many of these I have done, and I felt maybe some messages were being passed on to the concerned parties. I felt that I had an audience and that I was being heard. We felt privileged that the powers that be sneaked into this blog, maybe to spy, maybe to defend themselves, maybe to know what was being said and MAYBE even to learn or understand at thing or two about good management and governance. I'm not saying we are the "gurus" in that, but just that maybe sometimes we do have a point. That the said people ran off is testament to their belief and their style of working. We complain about impunity and insensitivity to constituents needs and this is where it starts from. Use "A mere $1M company" as a springboard to greater things and we perpetuate the same once we get up there. Is it that once there we get corrupted with power and/or greed and stop seeing sense? This idiocy of "collective responsibility" means one bad decision cripples all of Kenya rugby....
I almost lost psyche for my rambles. Once the peepers ran away, I felt I was talking to myself, and no one was really listening, or reading my posts. But the counter on the left page said otherwise. Quite to the contrary. Readership is steadily growing and a big thanks to our blog host and my blogging partners. We have kept the flame alive and though the comments (read abuses) have trickled (as if they are linked to the Mau), the encouraging comments are also there and keep us going...
I started that way because I have been put in a foul mood. What the f#*@ is this!! Complete embarrassment of the biggest order. I knew all along that there was a lot of washing over.. I mean after "successfully" hosting the JWRT and "successfully" hosting the Safari Sevens we have now shown our true colours. That funds were late in being released by CAR is no excuse for poor preparation. Do funds make phone calls and confirm facilities? Or are our permanently employed secretariat officers waiting for the gravy train of procurement to arrive? Or have the secretariat been sidelined by the event managing mercenariesof the IRB once more? It really is a shame and someone should take political responsibilty for this (he he..ala Martha)!
Now more than ever it is urgent that the KRFU table the missing accounts for the last three years. And most importantly, the Safari Sevens accounts. Barely a month after that even we are still waiting for handouts even to book accommodation for school children.. surely!!! And I heard a rumour last week, don't know how true it is.. all the hard working people who contribute to the success of the Safari Sevens are 100% volunteers. They do not even get two hundred bob for a drink in the evening after working so hard. Pray tell then... who gets paid (at least 28M by my count) during the Safari Sevens? Those accounts will make for interesting reading and it may be telling as to why they were not released in good time. I was even puzzled as to how you can change auditors before the previous one completes their task. And with one of the big 4 now doing the auditing, it is even more telling that KRFU are afraid to release their findings.. because for sure there are interesting findings in those books. Story is told of a KRFU treasurer who lost the re-election simply because he could not explain why the gate takings for the season were recorded in the books as a mere Ksh. 52,000.00. We wait and see.
Do have a good rugby week. As a courtesy to the young men putting life and limb on the line on Friday, do pass by and cheer the ongoing Africa Under 19 Championships. And someone please ask Omwela for the accounts!!
I almost lost psyche for my rambles. Once the peepers ran away, I felt I was talking to myself, and no one was really listening, or reading my posts. But the counter on the left page said otherwise. Quite to the contrary. Readership is steadily growing and a big thanks to our blog host and my blogging partners. We have kept the flame alive and though the comments (read abuses) have trickled (as if they are linked to the Mau), the encouraging comments are also there and keep us going...
I started that way because I have been put in a foul mood. What the f#*@ is this!! Complete embarrassment of the biggest order. I knew all along that there was a lot of washing over.. I mean after "successfully" hosting the JWRT and "successfully" hosting the Safari Sevens we have now shown our true colours. That funds were late in being released by CAR is no excuse for poor preparation. Do funds make phone calls and confirm facilities? Or are our permanently employed secretariat officers waiting for the gravy train of procurement to arrive? Or have the secretariat been sidelined by the event managing mercenaries
Now more than ever it is urgent that the KRFU table the missing accounts for the last three years. And most importantly, the Safari Sevens accounts. Barely a month after that even we are still waiting for handouts even to book accommodation for school children.. surely!!! And I heard a rumour last week, don't know how true it is.. all the hard working people who contribute to the success of the Safari Sevens are 100% volunteers. They do not even get two hundred bob for a drink in the evening after working so hard. Pray tell then... who gets paid (at least 28M by my count) during the Safari Sevens? Those accounts will make for interesting reading and it may be telling as to why they were not released in good time. I was even puzzled as to how you can change auditors before the previous one completes their task. And with one of the big 4 now doing the auditing, it is even more telling that KRFU are afraid to release their findings.. because for sure there are interesting findings in those books. Story is told of a KRFU treasurer who lost the re-election simply because he could not explain why the gate takings for the season were recorded in the books as a mere Ksh. 52,000.00. We wait and see.
Do have a good rugby week. As a courtesy to the young men putting life and limb on the line on Friday, do pass by and cheer the ongoing Africa Under 19 Championships. And someone please ask Omwela for the accounts!!
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Kenya Rugby : History of the Enterprise Cup 1930 to 2005 - 2
THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF RUGBY FOOTBALL IN EAST AFRICA
The last decade of the 19th Century saw the Imperial powers struggling for control over territory in Africa and political deals were struck without reference to the peoples affected. In 1890 Britain ceded to Germany the North Sea island of Heligoland and, in return, Germany gave up all claims to the territories north of a line between the estuary of the Umba River and Muhoro on Lake Victoria, land that in 1895 became British East Africa. The British constructed port facilities at Mombasa and laid a railway line from the coast to Lake Victoria, subsequently extended to Kampala. A major railway depot at the edge of the Rift Valley grew rapidly to become Nairobi, the new territorial capital. Until 1903, fewer than a dozen settlers were cultivating land in British East Africa but the railway changed all that and by 1914 there were 6,000. It is said that with the railway came the numbers needed to play rugby union football.
The first evidence of rugby in British East Africa is a photograph of teams taken before a match between Officials and Settlers in 1909. This was unlikely to have been the first such encounter and ‘casual’ matches were inevitable whilst there were so few players and these widely scattered around the country. Other sports suffered similar constraints and the inventive cricket administrators at the fledgling Mombasa Sports Club thrilled spectators with their menu of Law & Order vs The World, Clean-shaven vs Moustaches, Under Thirties vs Over Thirties and Married vs Single. In those early days, of course, there was no love lost between the settler community and the government officials whose sole objective, it sometimes seemed, was to hamper the commercial and social activities of the colony. They were constantly at loggerheads. Perhaps this explains why the annual Officials vs Settlers fixtures remained for so long in the rugby calendar, the only opportunity for the settlers legally to take out their frustrations on those who caused them. It was still being played as late as 1939 when the authorities cunningly reinforced the beleaguer civil servants, decreeing that ‘military personnel from Army and RAF units should henceforth be classed as officials’.
The European population expanded and the number of rugby players rose until there were enough to form teams representing the Coast Nairobi, Rift Valley and Plateau Districts. Other priorities intervened between 1914 and 1918 and little rugby was played during the bitterly fought East African Campaign. At the end of the war, German East Africa was renamed Tanganyika and British East Africa divided politically into Kenya and Uganda. Sport developed rapidly and in 1921 rugby enthusiasts from each Kenyan district met in Nairobi to discuss the formation of a national administration that would bring order to the game. The Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFUK) was formed and from 1923 assumed responsibility of rugby union football in Kenya.
The number of players in Nairobi soon exceeded the requirements of a single District XV. There was a need to extend the opportunities to play rugby and in 1923 the Nairobi players divided themselves to form two separate clubs, Nondescripts RFC and Harlequins RFC, the first in the country. This club-based development paralleled the strengthening of rugby at social and sports clubs throughout the territory including Mombasa, Kitale, Eldoret, Nakuru, Thika, Muthaiga and Ruiru.
By 1925 there was a regular fixture list and the several club sides in and around the capital city started a Nairobi District Championship (NDC), competing for a Championship Flag donated by Muthaiga. Anxious to accelerate the development of rugby, the RFUK introduced the concept of the “Rugby Weekend” or “ Rugby Gymkhana”. This was a festival of sporting fun, held at some agreeable location where teams would play a series of rugby matches against one another and enjoy the peripheral activities forever associated with amateur rugby.
The concept was sound but its implementation was dogged by poor attendance because of the difficulties of travel, compounded by vigorous argument over the choice of venue. Something else was needed to boost the game in East Africa.
Modern sporting theory now recognises that frequent external contact is an essential catalyst in the development of organised sport. Incoming and outgoing tours maintain enthusiasm amongst the aged, inspire the young, and provide a yardstick against which to measure progress. Although it would be many years before teams from East Africa could embark on overseas tours, any opportunity to compete against and incoming XV would offer considerable incentive for improvement. During the early develoment of the sport, such incentives were provided by the ships of the Royal Navy, each capable of fielding 15 large and robust gentlemen with a variable command of the laws and skills of rugby football.
The last decade of the 19th Century saw the Imperial powers struggling for control over territory in Africa and political deals were struck without reference to the peoples affected. In 1890 Britain ceded to Germany the North Sea island of Heligoland and, in return, Germany gave up all claims to the territories north of a line between the estuary of the Umba River and Muhoro on Lake Victoria, land that in 1895 became British East Africa. The British constructed port facilities at Mombasa and laid a railway line from the coast to Lake Victoria, subsequently extended to Kampala. A major railway depot at the edge of the Rift Valley grew rapidly to become Nairobi, the new territorial capital. Until 1903, fewer than a dozen settlers were cultivating land in British East Africa but the railway changed all that and by 1914 there were 6,000. It is said that with the railway came the numbers needed to play rugby union football.
The first evidence of rugby in British East Africa is a photograph of teams taken before a match between Officials and Settlers in 1909. This was unlikely to have been the first such encounter and ‘casual’ matches were inevitable whilst there were so few players and these widely scattered around the country. Other sports suffered similar constraints and the inventive cricket administrators at the fledgling Mombasa Sports Club thrilled spectators with their menu of Law & Order vs The World, Clean-shaven vs Moustaches, Under Thirties vs Over Thirties and Married vs Single. In those early days, of course, there was no love lost between the settler community and the government officials whose sole objective, it sometimes seemed, was to hamper the commercial and social activities of the colony. They were constantly at loggerheads. Perhaps this explains why the annual Officials vs Settlers fixtures remained for so long in the rugby calendar, the only opportunity for the settlers legally to take out their frustrations on those who caused them. It was still being played as late as 1939 when the authorities cunningly reinforced the beleaguer civil servants, decreeing that ‘military personnel from Army and RAF units should henceforth be classed as officials’.
The European population expanded and the number of rugby players rose until there were enough to form teams representing the Coast Nairobi, Rift Valley and Plateau Districts. Other priorities intervened between 1914 and 1918 and little rugby was played during the bitterly fought East African Campaign. At the end of the war, German East Africa was renamed Tanganyika and British East Africa divided politically into Kenya and Uganda. Sport developed rapidly and in 1921 rugby enthusiasts from each Kenyan district met in Nairobi to discuss the formation of a national administration that would bring order to the game. The Rugby Football Union of Kenya (RFUK) was formed and from 1923 assumed responsibility of rugby union football in Kenya.
The number of players in Nairobi soon exceeded the requirements of a single District XV. There was a need to extend the opportunities to play rugby and in 1923 the Nairobi players divided themselves to form two separate clubs, Nondescripts RFC and Harlequins RFC, the first in the country. This club-based development paralleled the strengthening of rugby at social and sports clubs throughout the territory including Mombasa, Kitale, Eldoret, Nakuru, Thika, Muthaiga and Ruiru.
By 1925 there was a regular fixture list and the several club sides in and around the capital city started a Nairobi District Championship (NDC), competing for a Championship Flag donated by Muthaiga. Anxious to accelerate the development of rugby, the RFUK introduced the concept of the “Rugby Weekend” or “ Rugby Gymkhana”. This was a festival of sporting fun, held at some agreeable location where teams would play a series of rugby matches against one another and enjoy the peripheral activities forever associated with amateur rugby.
The concept was sound but its implementation was dogged by poor attendance because of the difficulties of travel, compounded by vigorous argument over the choice of venue. Something else was needed to boost the game in East Africa.
Modern sporting theory now recognises that frequent external contact is an essential catalyst in the development of organised sport. Incoming and outgoing tours maintain enthusiasm amongst the aged, inspire the young, and provide a yardstick against which to measure progress. Although it would be many years before teams from East Africa could embark on overseas tours, any opportunity to compete against and incoming XV would offer considerable incentive for improvement. During the early develoment of the sport, such incentives were provided by the ships of the Royal Navy, each capable of fielding 15 large and robust gentlemen with a variable command of the laws and skills of rugby football.
THE ROYAL NAVY AND EAST AFRICAN RUGBY FOOTBALL
Ask any RFUK ‘alickadoo’ and he will try to convince you that the first inward rugby football tour to East Africa was undertaken in 1929 by a party of callow youths representing the Combined Universities of South Africa. Before that date, you will be told, there were occasional matches against teams representing Royal Navy ships, but these he will dismiss as mere ‘visits to entertain the jolly tars’, a demeaning description that may not be entirely accurate. Sporting contests on shore provided much needed exercise and the same time fulfilled social objectives, but they performed exactly the same functions for the small and often isolated communities that were visited. Writing of early life in Kitale and Eldoret, one resident noted the ‘the highlights of our life at hat time were the occasional safari to Nairobi…and the annual, or almost annual, visit of the Navy…’suggesting that any benefits arising from these Naval visits were widely shared.
The East African Protectorate was proclaimed in July 1895 and within a year there occurred the first sporting contest against the Royal Navy; a cricket match between a Mombasa XI and the gunboat, HMS Sparrow. Mombasa Sports Club, founded in 1896, opened its new cricket ground in April 1897 with two further matches against HMS Sparrow. Naval teams continued to play cricked, tennis and football matches against Mombasa sides during the next decade but it seems that the resident population at the time was too small to provide the numbers of players and range of skills needed for rugby football.
There is no official record of RN participation in East African rugby football until 1922 when Mombasa Sports Club played against a team from HMS Southampton, a ship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron[1]. A typical light cruiser of that period would have a crew of approximately 600 officers and men and turn out several teams (Marines, Stokers, Fo’csle men, Topmen, Quarterdeck etc.) for soccer, rugby, cricket, hockey, boxing, athletics, tug – of – war, tennis and golf. From these would be chosen the teams that represented the ship in contests against other ships and shore-based teams during their visits.
June 1921 described matches between HMS Southampton and teams representing Nakuru and Nairobi, played on successive days at ‘the Gymkhana ground’ in Nairobi. The match against Nairobi was a blood and thunder affair decided by the award of a dubious penalty try to the local team, the only score of the game. An observer was eerily prescient in his description of Nairobi performance, stating that: -
‘The fault appeared to lay with the forwards who, while fighting for all they were worth in the loose seldom heeled the ball out of the scrum cleanly, with the result that the halves were handicapped in letting our the threes. The passing by the backs was also faulty and numerous likely runs were spoilt either by bad passes or passes being dropped. The kicking was, on the whole, good but certain of the players on both sides went in for long hefty punts which failed to find touch rather than a shorter kick which was more likely to cross the side line.’
His observations have proved regrettably accurate over the years since 1921.
The RFUK archive lists the following visits by rugby teams from RN ships:
1922 – HMS Southampton
1923 – HMS Colombo and HMS Cairo
1924 – HMS Cairo
1925 – HMS Cairo and HMS Chatham
1926 – HMS Effingham
1927 – HMS Effingham
1928 – HMS Effingham and HMS Enterprise
1929 – HMS Effingham
1930 – HMS Enterprise
1931 – HMS Effingham
There is no official record of any match against HM ships between 1931 and the end of World War II, but only because the relevant pages are missing. Unofficial sources however confirm that rugby reams from the light cruisers Emerald and Enterprise visited Nairobi on several occasions, the latter losing twice to a Nairobi Select XV in 1937. Two of the names on the ream sheets that weekend continued to haunt the committee rooms of East African rugby for years thereafter – a Midshipman Round – Turner appearing for the Enterprise and a Mr Lloyd for Nairobi. Other ships known to have sent teams to Nairobi during this period include HMS Manchester and HMS Gloucester whose combined XX lost to Nondescripts in 1939.
The importance of these Naval visits in the early development of rugby football might be best illustrated by reference to the Mombasa Sports Club fixture list of 1923. Eleven matches were scheduled of which three (against Harlequins, Nondescripts and Thika) were compressed within an upcountry Christmas tour. Six of the remaining eight fixtures were against teams from HMS Colombo and HMS Cairo and one might ask whether serious rugby could have survived in Mombasa without these matches against Royal Navy ships.
During this period there occurred what appears to have been the first fully representative match in East Africa when, in 1952, Kenya played against the Royal Navy at Nairobi Club, winning by 11 points to 3. The Royal Navy XV was drawn from HMS Chatham and HMS Cairo, the two ships then in Mombasa, and this match sat within a crowded week that also include matches between the individual ships and the recently formed club sides, Harlequins, Nondescrips and Thika. The meticulous organisation of the visit reflects well on the newly established RFUK Committee. The Naval touring party totalled 70 men, including 40 rugby players, 13 soccer players, 6 boxers and an 11-man concert party. Hosts were arranged for the 15 officers and ‘Nairs Buildings’ hired to accommodate the men, who slept on beds borrowed from the Medical Department and ate at the New Stanley Hotel. The RFUK Naval Visit Entertainment sub-committee even hired the Theatre Royal for three nights of nautical jollity comprising two variety concerts and a boxing match. Their only failure was the ‘Smoker;, arranged at the Railway Institute and probably less popular with the eager matelots given the strict RFUK instruction that ‘No ladies are to be admitted, either as guests or artistes.’
Naval visits continued in 1926 and 1927 and so popular were they that the Honorary Secretary RFUK thought it necessary to issue to all of its affiliate clubs a letter stating to:
‘…I am desired to express the feeling of the Rugby Union that the Annual Week-end is considered a more important fixture in the propagation of Rugby than the Naval Visit, in as much as it means a gathering of practically all the rugger men in the Colony and a consequent improvement in the game, and you are earnestly requested to do your utmost to send representatives and to raise a Club team by any means whatsoever, in order to keep the Rugby Flag flying.’
Despite RFUK concerns these sporting visits continued, strengthening the links between the population of Kenya and the Royal Navy and, like the annual Rugby Weekends, helping to improve the quality of rugby in the region. In this context, the first appearance of the light cruiser HMS Enterprise in East African waters, in September 1928, was of particular significance. Her crew might, with some justification, claim the honour of making the first ever inward rugby tour of East Africa.
Ask any RFUK ‘alickadoo’ and he will try to convince you that the first inward rugby football tour to East Africa was undertaken in 1929 by a party of callow youths representing the Combined Universities of South Africa. Before that date, you will be told, there were occasional matches against teams representing Royal Navy ships, but these he will dismiss as mere ‘visits to entertain the jolly tars’, a demeaning description that may not be entirely accurate. Sporting contests on shore provided much needed exercise and the same time fulfilled social objectives, but they performed exactly the same functions for the small and often isolated communities that were visited. Writing of early life in Kitale and Eldoret, one resident noted the ‘the highlights of our life at hat time were the occasional safari to Nairobi…and the annual, or almost annual, visit of the Navy…’suggesting that any benefits arising from these Naval visits were widely shared.
The East African Protectorate was proclaimed in July 1895 and within a year there occurred the first sporting contest against the Royal Navy; a cricket match between a Mombasa XI and the gunboat, HMS Sparrow. Mombasa Sports Club, founded in 1896, opened its new cricket ground in April 1897 with two further matches against HMS Sparrow. Naval teams continued to play cricked, tennis and football matches against Mombasa sides during the next decade but it seems that the resident population at the time was too small to provide the numbers of players and range of skills needed for rugby football.
There is no official record of RN participation in East African rugby football until 1922 when Mombasa Sports Club played against a team from HMS Southampton, a ship of the 4th Cruiser Squadron[1]. A typical light cruiser of that period would have a crew of approximately 600 officers and men and turn out several teams (Marines, Stokers, Fo’csle men, Topmen, Quarterdeck etc.) for soccer, rugby, cricket, hockey, boxing, athletics, tug – of – war, tennis and golf. From these would be chosen the teams that represented the ship in contests against other ships and shore-based teams during their visits.
June 1921 described matches between HMS Southampton and teams representing Nakuru and Nairobi, played on successive days at ‘the Gymkhana ground’ in Nairobi. The match against Nairobi was a blood and thunder affair decided by the award of a dubious penalty try to the local team, the only score of the game. An observer was eerily prescient in his description of Nairobi performance, stating that: -
‘The fault appeared to lay with the forwards who, while fighting for all they were worth in the loose seldom heeled the ball out of the scrum cleanly, with the result that the halves were handicapped in letting our the threes. The passing by the backs was also faulty and numerous likely runs were spoilt either by bad passes or passes being dropped. The kicking was, on the whole, good but certain of the players on both sides went in for long hefty punts which failed to find touch rather than a shorter kick which was more likely to cross the side line.’
His observations have proved regrettably accurate over the years since 1921.
The RFUK archive lists the following visits by rugby teams from RN ships:
1922 – HMS Southampton
1923 – HMS Colombo and HMS Cairo
1924 – HMS Cairo
1925 – HMS Cairo and HMS Chatham
1926 – HMS Effingham
1927 – HMS Effingham
1928 – HMS Effingham and HMS Enterprise
1929 – HMS Effingham
1930 – HMS Enterprise
1931 – HMS Effingham
There is no official record of any match against HM ships between 1931 and the end of World War II, but only because the relevant pages are missing. Unofficial sources however confirm that rugby reams from the light cruisers Emerald and Enterprise visited Nairobi on several occasions, the latter losing twice to a Nairobi Select XV in 1937. Two of the names on the ream sheets that weekend continued to haunt the committee rooms of East African rugby for years thereafter – a Midshipman Round – Turner appearing for the Enterprise and a Mr Lloyd for Nairobi. Other ships known to have sent teams to Nairobi during this period include HMS Manchester and HMS Gloucester whose combined XX lost to Nondescripts in 1939.
The importance of these Naval visits in the early development of rugby football might be best illustrated by reference to the Mombasa Sports Club fixture list of 1923. Eleven matches were scheduled of which three (against Harlequins, Nondescripts and Thika) were compressed within an upcountry Christmas tour. Six of the remaining eight fixtures were against teams from HMS Colombo and HMS Cairo and one might ask whether serious rugby could have survived in Mombasa without these matches against Royal Navy ships.
During this period there occurred what appears to have been the first fully representative match in East Africa when, in 1952, Kenya played against the Royal Navy at Nairobi Club, winning by 11 points to 3. The Royal Navy XV was drawn from HMS Chatham and HMS Cairo, the two ships then in Mombasa, and this match sat within a crowded week that also include matches between the individual ships and the recently formed club sides, Harlequins, Nondescrips and Thika. The meticulous organisation of the visit reflects well on the newly established RFUK Committee. The Naval touring party totalled 70 men, including 40 rugby players, 13 soccer players, 6 boxers and an 11-man concert party. Hosts were arranged for the 15 officers and ‘Nairs Buildings’ hired to accommodate the men, who slept on beds borrowed from the Medical Department and ate at the New Stanley Hotel. The RFUK Naval Visit Entertainment sub-committee even hired the Theatre Royal for three nights of nautical jollity comprising two variety concerts and a boxing match. Their only failure was the ‘Smoker;, arranged at the Railway Institute and probably less popular with the eager matelots given the strict RFUK instruction that ‘No ladies are to be admitted, either as guests or artistes.’
Naval visits continued in 1926 and 1927 and so popular were they that the Honorary Secretary RFUK thought it necessary to issue to all of its affiliate clubs a letter stating to:
‘…I am desired to express the feeling of the Rugby Union that the Annual Week-end is considered a more important fixture in the propagation of Rugby than the Naval Visit, in as much as it means a gathering of practically all the rugger men in the Colony and a consequent improvement in the game, and you are earnestly requested to do your utmost to send representatives and to raise a Club team by any means whatsoever, in order to keep the Rugby Flag flying.’
Despite RFUK concerns these sporting visits continued, strengthening the links between the population of Kenya and the Royal Navy and, like the annual Rugby Weekends, helping to improve the quality of rugby in the region. In this context, the first appearance of the light cruiser HMS Enterprise in East African waters, in September 1928, was of particular significance. Her crew might, with some justification, claim the honour of making the first ever inward rugby tour of East Africa.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
