Blak blad, USIU face off for Floodlies title: Thika road based university teams win semis to set up last two contest at Impala

JKUAT Cougar's Kevin Onino(L) shield the ball against Steven Odhiambo of Kenyatta University Black Blad during Inter Universities Impala Floodlight semi finals at Impala ground, Nairobi on Saturday 18/10/14. KU won 29-12.PHOTO.BONIFACE OKENDO

Kenyatta University’s Blak Blad will meet United States International University (USIU) for the finals of the varsity category of the Airtel Impala Floodlit tournament.

Blak Blad beat Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) 29-12 in the semi-finals of the tournament yesterday evening.

Speaking after the victory Blak Blad coach Ian Mugambi claimed he was proud of the development of the team and the direction they are heading.

“This was definitely a marked improvement from our game last weekend (in the quarter-finals) and it is very encouraging as we head for the finals,” he said. “Our back three players were remarkable in semis both defensively and offensively. When they got the ball, they took it forward at pace and got into contact at the right areas of the pitch.”

Mugambi feels that even though it was not the best performance yet,  the team still needed some credit for how they were adapting to the various challenges.

“I think we virtually won all our line-outs and even went on to contest some of theirs,” he said. “The area of concern however will be the scrum downs, where I feel we were pushed back quite a bit and we may need to work extra on that element.

“The scrum downs are a particular worry for us, given that our next game against USIU, their forwards are heavier than us, which will cause us some problems. For now we will just need to find a way we can overcome that and I am confident that we can emerge winners of the tournament.”

Blak Blad had played just a few minutes after USIU had beaten Catholic Monks 24-12 in the other semi-final of the day. According to USIU coach Dennis Mwanja, they  deserved the victory after making the right decisions on the given day.

“We started the game well and we adopted accordingly to the situation on the pitch, which allowed us to pick an early lead,” Mwanja said. “Monks from there had to play catch up against us, for which we were able to hold on to our lead.”

The finals of the varsity category will be played at the same venue next weekend, just before the finals of the club category, which will be the main event of the given day.