Quins roar in Kenya Cup first round

By BS Mulavi

As the Kenya Cup takes a breather for the festive season on the conclusion of the first leg, the question lingering on everyone’s lips is who will stop the champions Harlequins?

The champions have managed to attain maximum points from all of their seven first leg fixtures, meaning they have convincingly beaten every team in the league by more than four tries in each game.

Be it second-placed Impala whom they ran over 33-13 or bulldozers KCB whom they edged 30-24 in an entertaining duel in the final day of the first legs fixtures. The champions have been clinical in their execution even on occasions when they made numerous changes in their squad as was experienced when they beat Mean Machine 20-10 at the University of Nairobi.

With their game plan of looking for territory through Peter Abouga’s boot and letting the forwards finish off with patient build-up in the set plays, no team has come close to giving coach Edward Kinyany the slightest headache.

KCB had started their game against Quins in an upbeat mood, but Quins’ patience and never-say-die attitude saw them clench on an opportunity in the dying minutes of the game to deny the bankers what would have been an emphatic victory.

No other team in the league has been able to grab on their opportunities in a way as the champions. Each team coming up against them gets punished by Abuoga’s boot for conceding penalties. The only boot man that has come close is Mwamba’s Tito Oduk whose kicking game is restricted by his team’s scratch-and-go system of play.

Second-placed Impala have not been playing good rugby and have only been saved by the fact that they boast some of the country’s best players such as Innocent Simiyu, Dan Weku and Lawrence Buyachi, who at times can come up with ways to win even in tricky situations. Their weakness was shown when they met the champs who had no problem making mince meat of them and when they travelled to Nakuru, with the hosts almost getting their first win of the season.

The surprise package of the season has to go to Mwamba RFC who find themselves third in the table which can be attributed to a strong show by their forwards.

In recent years it has been claimed Mwamba only uses their backs, but things have changed and they are now reaping the rewards even with the absence of some of their sevens players.