Kengewa make top four

By BS MULAVI

Kengewa went into the history books on Saturday evening after they hammered Mamba 145-12 at the RFUEA grounds for the final group games of Bamburi Rugby Super Series.

Speaking to FeverPitch after the games Kengewa coach Charles Ngovi explained his excitement at the big win, “Today the boys did what they were told do,” he said. “We knew that Mamba had already succumbed to two previous big scores and it was for us to exploit their lack of confidence at this stage,” he added.

“For a team that is struggling like Mamba, it was for us to just challenge them in the setpieces after which everything fell into place,” he explained. Ngovi went on to heap praise on his team’s never say die attitude, which he attributes the big score to.

Big score

“Most teams reach a score of 60 and start slouching, but for my team today, they went in for the kill and worked their socks off, to the final whistle, thus the big score,” he added. Speaking alongside Ngovi was his assistant Wangila Simiyu who said the performance at the tournament so far proved how talented players are in universities.

“Rwenzori contains the bulk of the Uganda national team players, and this university side stood up to them in their home ground,” he explained. “It takes a very talented side to be able to pull the results we have and we are very proud of the boys no matter what stage they reach at the tournament,” he added.

“We now need to invest more in our development structures at the Under 19, 21 and 23 if we are to fully exploit the immense talent shown by the side.”

Meanwhile, in the second game of the day, Nyumbu sealed top spot in Pool A with a convincing 28-10 victory over Papa. Headcoach Paul Murunga praised his team for showing composure, to fend off their fierce rivals.

Keep it cool

“We showed quite some maturity today,” he said. “We did not unnecessarily run the ball and we kept our cool on defence,” he explained. “We are now looking forward to the semis where I feel we stand a great chance of making it to the final.”

“We know in order for us to be the champs, we need to have beaten all the teams so we don’t have any favourites who we would want to meet in the semis next weekend,” he concluded.

Papa Coach Paul Odera, expressed his disappointment at the loss but claimed that it would not deter their push for the main title. “We have gained valuable knowledge and we will use it to better ourselves for the next stage.

Odera went on to say: “In our next fixture we now need to look at how we will form our defensive lines, how we will take the one on one tackles and how we will defend as a team.”

“I don’t think we can dismiss our title ambitions, just because we have lost one game, we still stand a chance and we are a team with great potential,” said Odera. “We have the ability of playing well even after the loss, and that is what we intend to do.”