Kenya beat Uganda 27 - 10 in the first round clash of the Elgon Cup in Nairobi. The match also doubled up as part of the Tri Nations Victoria Cup.
Scorers for Kenya
Tries : Tony Mutai, Nato Simiyu, Brian Okwomi, Ronnie Mwenesi
Conversion : Peter Abuoga (2)
Penalty : Vincent Mose
Go Kenya Go. Now Kayumbet.
6 Comments:
My take
FIRST HALF:
We were disjointed, could not string more than 3 phases. We played more like individuals than a team. Notebaly one of the most worrying trend was taking the ball in without attempting to drop the shoulder and tackling high. UG kept getting the basics right tackling low and driving back. Amonde could learn a lot from the ugandan number 5- he was big but was choosing to hit the gaps instead of straight at the man and high,
SECOND HALF
We started playing like a team with the introduction of Mutai and that big Matoh lock. We kept tackling and taking the ball in high and in isolation.
We lost 3 players to high tackling. Thats why we keep punching below our weight while UG are look good even with a young side.
Uganda have nothing to offer Kenya Rugby my friends. its useless depending on such games for the growth of our national team. most of the faces in the Uganda team were the ones on the side beaten at home by the cheetahs. they could do much more if they had a back line half as good as ours, which was shit on the day i might add. their forwards will always break the kenyan gain line with 10-15 metres gained if such go forward ball was fed to a lethal backline like ZIM then we would be the whipping boys of this comp.
Aon 9:58
i agree with you i am sick and tired of these big names who will only look for the big tackle, big stool to please the crowd. r these guys coached really space with a little step will always work and get u over the gain line.
big tackle as opposed to a sport on efficient tackle look at okwomi when he came in superb technique on the tackle if only you get 5 guys like this on your side.
whats the fascination with all these so called experienced ageing players. you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. give ogre the top job and lets have fresh blood coming into the system.
Tall with all due respect was Shit on the day. its a pity that young Nyando Kid dint get a second shot but again thats kenya rugby for you.
An interesting game for several reasons:
1- In a way, it was more of the same: the forwards scored most tries (3 vs 1), and the backs missed a lot of kicks (~10 points). We switched kickers around before settling on Abuoga. Time for some soul-searching in that department...
2- On the other hand, the center combination of Patrice and Tall was airtight in defence. These two put their necks on the line (literally). But they did not gel well in attack until the second half, when they communicated better and looked more lively, resulting in Nato's try. Well done!
3- As a team, we played too tight in the first half, which is the kind of game the Ugandans love, resulting in dead heat at half time. Second half was a lot wider, and the Ugandans could not keep up.
4- Maybe there was a strategy of playing the first half in UG's one-dimensional kind of rugby, then switching gears in the second half to a game pattern they couldn't cope with. Good thinking (if that was the plan ;-)
All in all, forwards played well (despite a couple scrummaging hiccups), and we seem to have sorted our issues with leaking easy tries down the middle of the backline, though it could also mean that the UG backline is truly terrible. We'll see when Zim comes around in two weeks...
My 2 cents:
The first half was diabolical. Our discipline was lacking and had the Ugandans had a better goal kicker they'd have taken us to the cleaners.
Our racks were quite untidy and inevitably we committed too many men in them. This led to our backline getting very slow ball (not that they would have done anything with it given their pedestrian effort on the day).
Personnel-wise, we lack the requisite size upfront to trouble the big boys. We had a very small backrow (with the exception of Mogere) and it is for this reason that the Ugandans dominated the collisions. Rugby is and will always be a big man's game and without big and strong players we are headed nowhere. Case in point: the entry of Martin Likami was a gamechanger in more ways than one.His entry coincided with our getting front foot ball.Imagine what you could do with more Likamis.
We dont have an international scrummie. Mutai is a bit long in the tooth whilst Achayo is very limited.
Lastly, you cannot have your captain playing at the wing!He's too far removed from the action to "feel" the pace and direction of the game.
That said, we should still beat Uganda in Kampala but as someone intimated in a previous post UG should not trouble any of the top 4 Kenya Cup sides.
Anon 9:58am This is the kind of attitude that probably the Kenya team had going into the game.You are wrong.First of all Uganda missed the services of all their jumpers through injuries or work commitments.Captain Mathias Ochwo,Romano Ogwal,Steven Ogwete & Ronney Mwisaka..Their open side is a center for freaks sake.Such a forward line should never have bullied us.The tacticians saw this and we took their line outs more in the second half setting a platform for attack.Am a Kenyan and work in Uganda.Believe u me due to politics the representative sides are bullshit,everyone knows Heathens as a club would put up a better show for Uganda,juxtaposing the disorganisation in team selection.12 kids this year have been capped starting from the super series.I agree Ug have a negative/conservative attitude towards attacking rugby through the backs but I have watched enough club rugby here to tell you they have do have decent backline players(which is why Heathens have matched Mwamba in 10's over the last 4 years,the kid who played 13 has met Khayange at club level several times and matched him) but have major issues with their half backs..9 & 10..If Edmond Tumusiime(retired at 22) was still playing we would have had a shocker on our hands bse he would have got that backline moving.Ug have beaten Kenya U19 the last 2 years.The top 3 fly halves(one of them U19) in the league have not been selected this year,the flyhalf plays 15 in the league and the 9 is an average fly half in the league..How whack is that?So how did we struggle against such a team team moreover at home.Word of caution,am no Ug apologist but going forward,if they sort out their team management issues and their fly half issues we might be in for a surprise going forward.For now we are comfortable but getting too comfortable...which is why all these questions are being asked.Maintain the focus and let us even win by a bigger score in Kampala.
If only we had all our sevens players and Kiptoo, and if peter did not retire in 2010, then we would have won 77-10. Thats bogus thinking and logic applied to sports. Stop using retired, injured and unavailable players as an excuse to losses every year. We lost to Zimbabwe and we wil not use such lame excuses as our 15 played at 1, our 2 at 10 etc,etc. accept defeat like we did.
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