Menengai Oilers will host Western Bulls in a Kenya Cup round 13 fixture at the Moi Showground in Nakuru today with both sides harbouring different ambitions in the league.
With only four matches remaining in the regular season, Oilers are keen on a top-six finish that will see them secure passage to the playoffs while the struggling Bulls have set their sights on getting out of the relegation zone.
Bulls, who are coached by Bram Shikanda, are currently 11th on the Kenya Cup standings with 13 points, one below Kenyatta University’s Blak Blad who host another playoff-chasing team Impala Saracens.
In Oilers, Bulls face a team that will be hungry to return to winning ways having gone down 19-17 to their cross-town neighbours Nakuru RFC last weekend.
“I am looking forward to a win but I am well aware that it will not be an easy fixture. Oilers played very well against Nakuru and they are also chasing the playoffs,” Shikanda told Standard Sports.
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“I hope we shall match them (Oilers) in their backyard and get something from the game. They are a physical side full of running but we are equally good and we shall be ready for them,” added Shikanda.
Shikanda, who rued their wastefulness in last weekend’s 29-8 loss to champions KCB, will be hoping his charges are more clinical today when the match kicks off at 4 pm.
“We definitely want to survive and there is a good chance to do that because we are only one point adrift Blak Blad. We have four games remaining and we shall fight till the end,” he said.
The last meeting between Bulls and Oilers in Kakamega ended 27-21 in favour of the Gibson Weru-coached Oilers.
At the KCB Sports Club in Ruaraka, KCB will be out to register their seventh successive win when they host ninth-placed Kenya Harlequin.
The bankers head to the contest as firm favourites having had a far much better campaign than Quins who have seen their hopes of reaching the playoffs go up in smoke.
KCB, who have beaten Quins in their last six meetings, go to the fixture on the back of a 29-8 victory against Western Bulls in Kakamega while Quins received a 48-3 hiding from Homeboyz in their last outing. Curtis Olago’s men emerged 32-20 winners the last time KCB faced Quins in the Kenya Cup.
Elsewhere, league leaders Kabras Sugar welcome Mwamba in Kakamega as they look to consolidate top spot that will eventually see them receive a bye to the semi-finals alongside the second-place finishers. Mwamba, whose last win against the sugar millers was a 22-17 triumph, expect tough tie.
