RUGBY: Why Kenya lost to Uganda

KENYA VS UGANDA
Kenya's Charles Omondi ground the ball over the goalline for a try during the Elgon Cup match at Harliquin grounds on Saturday, June 13th, 2015. PHOTO/ JONAH ONYANGO

Coach Mitch Ocholla has opened up on the reasons for their loss to Uganda at the weekend.

The Kenya National 15s second string rugby team went into the match in Kampala with a 20-17 advantage in aggregate from their first game, but lost 30-25 to the hosts in the return leg to lose at an overall score of 47-45.

This meant Kenya surrendered the coveted Elgon Cup trophy and bragging rights in the East African region.

Speaking to the Kenya Rugby Union media office, Ocholla said they have accepted the defeat as it is part of sports. However, feels that they lost because of a number of issues.

“I think discipline was an issue, because we received two yellow cards,” he explained.

“I also think the issue of the two tries really made a difference. Uganda were awarded a penalty try, while our try by Cyprian Kuto was disallowed,” he added. Ocholla thinks that this being an away match, certain things were done to unsettle the team including the match starting late. As opposed to the match starting at 4pm, it started at 4.30.

Losing the Elgon Cup was a painful affair for the team, but Ocholla insists they have picked some positives from the tournament and he was glad to have played with some of the best talent in Kenya.

COACH OPTIMISTIC

The coach remains optimistic considering that this is a growing team and that they will have many more Elgon Cups to contest in future.

Meanwhile, Uganda coach Robert Seguya has insisted they had the character and hunger needed to win the trophy.

With the home side trailing 18-6 at half-time, the players had to dig deep to overturn the results and register a vital win.

Seguya says they are boosted by the victory and have learnt quite a lot from the Kenyans. First and foremost, they will attempt to reach the conditioning levels of her neighbours and they will then train to improve on their technical aspect of the game.

For the Kenyan team, they are now back home and they will sit on the sidelines as they watch the national first string side take on Tunisia at the RFUEA grounds on Sunday evening for the second round of the Confederation of African Rugby Trophy.

Kenya has always beaten Tunisia when they travel to Nairobi and their hopes remain high to continue with that record.