What I also saw in the last three matches the team has played is a defensive tenacity like never before. I have always been an advocate for strong defence as my belief is the one who stops the other from scoring wins the games, not the one who scores more! A paradox.. methinks not and this was shown by the team.
Lastly, I have always been an advocate for strong clubs. A post by Ruggerbug rubbed some people the wrong way, but what I have realised, and my fellow bloggers as well, is that where there is smoke.. And in some ways we have been vindicated. All we are doing is moving away from the dark corners in dingy bars with the comments and complaints and general apathy to putting the issues out in the open. This increases the pressure for transparency and accountability and mutes the impunity. Call us cowards.. but hey, bloggers saved this country in 2008. Once the press channels are compromised, and an unwritten "hear no evil, see no evil" culture prevails, then we need just the sort of space the blogosphere gives us. That one can easily be made into a Pariah, this we have seen so often.. and all for what? Speaking the truth? That people feel it is their right to hold certain positions because they have sacrificed for the game, who then offers this recognition? What is the process of obtaining recognition? Former greats of the game pay to watch rugby matches! So is it who you drink with? Who you
All in all, the next four weeks or so will be tumultuous to the running of the sport in this country and I wait to see. Do have a good week and I wish the team well in their final Victoria Cup match. Congratulations on attaining the highest ranking ever by any Kenya team and that makes you by default - the greatest Kenyan Rugby team to date!
14 Comments:
kudos kenya 15s and let them know that sometimes experience does not count n thus need 2 pave way 4 the young players. only then will the rugby family in kenya grow
The string of wins has been impressive and the blending of new players with the old guards has been refreshing.
Kevin Umbuge stands out, in my most improved players 2010, because he has refined his raw talents over time and now is a gem of a forward.
Other players worth mentioning include David Ambunya and Felix Wanjala.
But the true test for the team will come in days to come when the they take on Namibia (though am not sure if Namibia will field their first choice players in the CAR cup).
Also, the Union and the team plus the rugby community at large will be judged on how they build from the "Mpumalanga Massacre".
Uganda have become our usual customers. We need to venture into the deeper waters? Mpumalanga was a start.
I find the comment by DataMiner that by virtue of attaining the highest ranking ever makes them "the greatest Kenyan Rugby team to date" a tad bit misleading. It would be helpful to understand how the rankings come up in the first place...
Well, you do get measured on achievement and not the players, so they can be somewhat called the greatest team to date, i like the look of the second row and loose forwards, very mobile and have mongrel despite their size...mpumalanga was in a lot of ways a good experience for them, showed how many levels of rugby there are that we can get smashed by a cellar dwellar vodacom cup side...anyway hoping this side stays together for a while for the sake of continuity
@Wanjala - note I said by default. There was not ranking in the earlier days and the rankings is actually the only measure we have of where we lie. This also plays a big role in getting pro contracts (not to quote FIFA standards). Case in point, the top try scorer in this years IRB Sevens can land a contract with Sale Sharks while last years' well...
DataMiner - Thanks for your feedback. But I beg to differ. The rankings should not be the only measure of where we lie at the moment. Think about the development side of the 15's. How good is the pipeline of players coming through to feed the existing talent at the national team. The rankings might actually undervalue or overvalue the team's potential depending on whether the games fraternity is building a foundation that will see the team rise up the ranks in years to come. This has actually brought itself out in the IRB Series this year and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Let me start with the FIFA World Cup. The Spanish built "tiki - taka" - their format of play of one two short passes since the 90s thanks to Johan Cruyff (a dutch). Sadly though they have underperformed in major tournaments that is until these last two years in which they are now European and World Champions. So prior to Euro 2008 the FIFA rankings did them an "injustice" not considering their future value or what business analysts can term "intrinsic value" in share price valuation. Carbacid may be trading at Sh160 per share but its intrinsic and break up value of the company is Sh200 a share.
Spain's intrinsic value has finally came to the fore after years in which the FIFA rankings undervalued them.
So what is Kenya Rugby team's "intrinsic value"? Just a thought..
Ranking can only be useful when based on specific, measurable verifiable and objective parameters. In sports results on match day are the only quantifiable measure that can be reliably used.
The intrinsic value of stocks can be calculated by using a given formula which is applied across the board to carry out such calculations to enable relative comparison of the value of different stocks.
The same cannot be applied in sports where the intrinsic value of a team counts for nothing if they cant get their act right on game day. You might have the best development systems and organizational structures but they will count for nothing if your players suffer from a bout of diarrhea at game day and lose to the weakest team in the world knocking them out of a major ranking competition like the world cup in the group stages. There are too many variables that may affect the translation of a development plan and sound structures into results. Agreed, they are the foundation and root of any successful team but it’s a pity they cannot be measured as a basis for future results. If the jabulani ball took strange trajectories past Casillas into the net to hand the Dutch a win over Spain no one would praise their systems as much as they are doing now.
If the current Kenya team achieves a higher ranking they any other Kenya team has ever achieved, they rightly deserve the title as the best TEAM that Kenya has ever produced. (Whether they are the best players ever in their respective playing or coaching positions is open to conjecture)
Would you rather score 97% and end up last in a job interview or score 3% and end up first in the same interview where only a top finish is required.
This is Kenya’s best team ever.
To some extent I agree match day results are a quantifiable measure that can be used.
But what about the other non quantifiable results which are not keenly considered though they are a sum of the whole?
England were rugby's perennial underachievers that was until Sir Clive Woodward took over.
He penned a good autobiography - "Winning" on how England's game came together over five years to win the 2003 World Cup.
In the book there is a chapter titled "Changing Our Mindset" in which details of how the team created a plan in 1997 to be "The Best" were laid out.
Sample some of the goals "To be the most destructive defense in the World; Ability to score off the first phase; Be precise and accurate at ALL lineouts" and so forth..
Of course in the 1999 World Cup they were crushed and burnt by South Africa.
Sir Clive had to go back to the drawing board and writes the following on the defeat "For the first time since I'd written my initial plan for the players almost two years previously, I sat down to write a report of our '99 World Cup to the management board."
He notes the failures as follows "When everything was working for us -if the gods were smiling on us -we won. But reliance on divine intervention did not constitute a plan. Not if we wanted to win, we had to be fully prepared for every eventuality," The report was 26 pages long...
But the RFU had the guts to incorporate some of the proposals recommended in the report such as better logistics for the team, better man management skills from Sir Clive, overcoming the fear factor of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa and actually beating them in the Southern Hemisphere.
This sort of increased their intrinsic value setting those goals and measures which are not quantifiable (I mean how do you quantify man management skils!!). So by getting the unquantifiable measures right it is then that the quantifiable measures fell into place..
Though the intrinsic value of a stock can be calculated you cannot get consensus across the board; every one will have differing opinions on what the exact value is e..and in the short term the market might be a voting machine but in the long run its a weighing machine where ultimately the company whose intrinsic value is right will see a rise in its performance and eventually share price.
As for Kenya's good spell it is always important to remember;
"When you win the big deal, that's when you should be straight to the boardroom on Monday morning to analyse what went right and how you can learn from your success to do it again,"
bare in mind that england then had a pool of talented players to chose from, guys like dallaglio, johnson, the scrummy, lewsy, wilkinson, robinson, catt e.t.c. These guys could actually compete skillwise with their southern hemisphere counterparts, so clive woodward's work was really cut down to psychology and player management, the guy couldnt coach
In the earlier years they had an even better pool of players to choose from Guscott "Prince of Centers", Ackford, Will Carling, De Glanville...but they needed better organisation which Sir Clive did. I would not comment on whether he can or cannot coach but he transformed England Rugby..with the structures he put in place..
Back to kenya. We might have the "Best" team now but what structures will we put in place to build on their potential. Quick pointer here. Did anyone watch Mangu play. I watched them in the semi-finals of the Prescott cup and was very impressed by their forward play at their level. Question is what will happen to their rugby talent once they leave high school? Food for thought...
i understand what you are trying to say, we dont really have any structures in rugby, not even basic ones, i have seen really talented guys at high school level who quit the game after because there isnt a clear pathway to the senior team. The guys who end up playing are the ones who decide to self-sacrifice and join a club after highschool to play for close to nothing, add to this the lack of financial incentive. The current team has no guarantees of staying together for even the next three yrs. I dont know the financial status of KRFU but we should try going the route of the smaller unions i.e argentina, canada, fiji, samoa, usa e.t.c and contract a pool of top 40 players or so who dedicate themselves to the game
I agree with the idea of contracting a group of players especially for the 15 a side.
This season has proved that money can be found one way or another for the game to progress..but we (lead by the officials) need to be accountable for the cash.
Tank with encouragement from mostly Kinyany chose to put in fresh faces into the fifteens side. Well done Tankz. Think about Tank Otieno Rugby Academy (TORA). Its sounds better than the other one.
Benja would not bring new faces or fresh legs into the team that easily.
I say Tank is a better National Head Coach than Benja.
As for Bill Githinji and your backers, go back to the drawing board.
Latest news in is that the Kenyan Universities 7s team was to depart for Porto for the World University Sevens will not be travelling. The union had agreed to provide air tickets, only to realize that they do not have any left as they have been using them to transport Officials to IRB Sevens tournaments, plus the whole board to Mpumalanga!
Good stuff Kenya 15s.Keep up the winning spirit.
Post a Comment