Kenyas  15s rugby  team fly-half Isaac Adimo is tackled by Uganda’s Hooker Mubiru during their first leg  of the Elgon Cup at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani, on Saturday night. [PHOTO: MARTIN MUKANGU: STANDARD]

By BS MULAVI

It was a damp affair at the Moi International Sports Centre, as the Kenya National 15s male rugby team succumbed to a narrow 17-16 loss to Uganda.

Angry fans joked that the loss was as a result of holding the match at Kasarani, which is a stadium associated with the poor performance of the national football team Harambee stars.

“I rarely hear of Kenya losing to Uganda on home soil, but then again, that was when the matches were being played at the RFUEA grounds,” said Andalo Ingari, a staunch rugby fan.

All jokes aside, the team was a pale shadow of the expectations that are placed on the team, their biggest undoing being the missed chances they failed to utilise.

Uganda’s back row players failed to plug a hole between the backs and the forwards and on three occasions Kenya exploited this opportunity by Dennis Muhanji breaking the defence line and sprinting almost thirty yards by himself, but on all occasions the support play was poor and the ball was lost because he got isolated.

Kenya themselves had a disconnect between their backs and forwards on attack, which was caused by the detach between their half back players. Fly half Isaac Adimo rarely got a clean pass from the scrum-half and consequently the Ugandans got a chance to close down Kenya’s plays easily by simply drifting with the ball.

Despite assistant coach Charles Ngovi’s assurances that they had worked hard on the lineouts, the second half saw Kenya lose three out of four of their chances, which would have easily put them on the front foot in attack.

NARROW MARGIN

Kenya lost by a one point margin only, which puts into question the missed chances in the kicking; Adimo missed two crucial attempts at post which would have given Kenya a considerable lead in the tie.

By the end of the match questions were already being raised on the selection criteria of the team.

One logic being: Nakuru RFC had won the Kenya Cup, reached the Enterprise Cup finals and were the bulk of the squad that won the Bamburi Rugby Super Series yet thier players did not feature predominantly in the Kenya Team.

Meanwhile, Kenya Harlequin, who were fifth in the Kenya Cup, lost in the quarter-finals of the Enterprise Cup and refused to take part in the semi-finals of the Bamburi Rugby Super Series with the Nyumbu franchise held the bulk of the Kenya team slots.

As the team heads to Kampala for the return leg, the prospect of the side overturning the deficit look slim given Uganda are always tougher on home soil and are known to be favoured by officials on home soil.