RWC 2007 Fixtures

The 2007 Rugby World Cup is here with us.Below are some of the upcoming fixtures.

Upcoming Fixtures
RWC 07 SEP 2007 France v/s Argentina

RWC 08 SEP 2007 Australia v/s Japan

RWC 08 SEP 2007 England v/s USA

RWC 08 SEP 2007 New Zealand v/s Italy

RWC 09 SEP 2007 Ireland v/s Namibia

RWC 09 SEP 2007 Scotland v/s Portugal

RWC 09 SEP 2007 South Africa v/s Samoa

RWC 09 SEP 2007 Wales v/s Canada

RWC 11 SEP 2007 Argentina v/s Georgia

RWC 12 SEP 2007 Italy v/s Romania

RWC 12 SEP 2007 Japan v/s Fiji

RWC 12 SEP 2007 USA v/s Tonga

The Kenya Cup Season at a glance

by Anthony "Junior" Ochino

The 15s rugby season has been exciting if anything especially for fans and players of KCB RFC
The Lions started the season by winning the Impala Floodlit Trophy and followed that up by winning the Kenya Cup for the third successive year before putting the icing on the cake by lifting the Enterprise Cup, a trophy that had eluded the team since 2004.
The following are a few facts regarding the Kenya Cup league 2007:

In lifting the Kenya Cup KCB played 14 matches, won 11 and lost 3.
In those matches the Lions managed to score 43 tries and conceded 11. In only 1 match did the team fail to score a try. That was the 7-6 loss to Nakuru RFC at the latter’s backyard.

Except against Mwamba,KCB either failed to concede a try or only conceded 1 in each game a trend that continued throughout the Kenya Cup season till Mwamba crossed the line 6 times in pippin the Lions 36-35 at the den. Mwamba had exposed a glaring weakness and everyone waited to see how the Lions would respond. The Lions however recovered superbly in their next match scoring six unanswered tries in beating Nondies who could only manage two penalties.

Over the two legs Mombasa and Impala failed to cross the lions try line while Nondies, Harlequins and Nakuru managed 1 try each. Machine scored two, one in each leg while Mwamba’s six was the worst defensive performance by the Lions.
Nondies conceded the most tries to the lions letting in 9, followed by Impala and Mombasa who let in 8 each. Mwamba and Machine conceded 7 each while Quins and Nakuru kept the Lions at bay only conceding two tries apiece to the Lions.
In the three loses, two were by a point each to Mwamba and Nakuru who beat the lions 36-35 and 7-6 respectively. The Lions lost 10-7 to Kenya Harlequin.

Another interesting fact in the lions losses was that in each of the three games they had two yellow cards and the games were all refereed by one ref, Godwin Karuga.
In the first loss Arnold Odera and Anthony Ogot were sent to the sin bin within minutes of each other allowing Nakuru to score a try off a quick penalty. Against Quins Anthony Ochino and Howard Okwemba were sent off in the fist and second half respectively. It was while Howard was off that Quins scored their winning try. Against Mwamba it was while Anthony Ogot and Peter Mutai were cooling their heels in the bin that Lions suffered their own version of “six minutes of hell” a phrase many AC Milan fans are familiar with.
They say becoming number one is easier than maintaining number one. I totally agree but for now the bragging rights belong to KCB RFC'S ‘Lions'.
There are three kinds of rugby players: those who make it happen,those who watch what happened and those who wonder what happened.
Which one are you?


Coming soon...a review of the Eric Shirley Shield season

Lions reclaim Enterprise Cup

The KCB Lions claimed the Enterprise Cup for the second time with a 28-16 victory over Mean Machine in a thrilling final played at the RFUEA on Saturday.

The Lions went into the lead with an early penalty from Peter Mutai.Captain Paul Murunga scored an unconverted try a few minutes later to extend the lead to 8-0.Machine fought back and narrowed the deficit to 8-5 through Byran Simiyu's unconverted try."Pau" touched down again to give the Lions a 13-5 lead but Mike Mukopi again replied for the students with a try that brought the scores to 13-10.

A good move involving Howard Okwemba and Anthony Ochino saw Andrew Amonde touch down under the posts to give the Lions a 20-10 lead at this stage of the game.An infringement deep in the KCB half earned Machine a penalty that was duly converted by Kevin Gachoka to see the teams go into the half time break at 20-13.

Second half action saw Machine come out with guns blazing,pinning the Lions to their own half with constant attacks.The Lions defence held up and kept the students from scoring any more tries.However,the game seemed to go in favour of Machine when they were first awarded a penalty that was again kicked over by Kevin Gachoka.This penalty narrowed the scores to 20-16 and Machine had the opportunity to take the lead when KCB were temporarily reduced to 14 men when replacement scrum half Benjamin Otieno was yellow carded for an infringement.The students pressed,keeping the Lions on the backfoot but resolute defence and maturity kept the Lions in the game.While still a man down,they gained possession from a Machine attack,launched a counter attack scored a pushover try through Anthony Ogot.This widened the gap to 25-16.This awakened their fighting spirit.Peter Mutai would then stroke over the penalty that effectively killed off Mean Machine.With the scores at 28-16,match referee Raymond Oruo blew the final whistle that saw the Lions reclaim the trophy they won for the first time in 2004.The Lions also completed a rare season triple in fifteens rugby,adding the Enterprise Cup to the Kenya Cup and Impala Floodlit titles they won earlier this season.

Earlier in the Mwamba Cup,KCB Cubs three year reign as champions was ended by a fired up Strathmore University who crushed the defending champions 32-7 in the final match played at the same venue.The Cubs suffered an early blow when hard tackling flanker Ronnie Mwenesi was sent off for retaliation.They trailed 0-13 at the interval and were always second best during the entire match.35 year old Dave Orenda scored the consolation try for the Cubs,intercepting a loose pass from the Strathmore backs and running 75 meters to score under the posts.Harun Lubisia was sure with the conversion.Mike Shamiah,the Cubs team manager was philosophical about the loss saying,"win some...lose some...this was one of those we lost."

The curtain now falls on the 15s season.The KRFU sevens circuit kicks off in Nakuru on 22nd September 2007.