Strathmore retain pole position: Varsity students make light work of Western Bulls in one-sided Kenya Cup tie

Strathmore University rugby in past match

Strathmore University maintained their Kenya Cup leadership with a clinical 46-5 victory over Western Bulls yesterday at the RFUEA Grounds.

Speaking after the victory, Strathmore head coach Mitch Ocholla claimed the win proved how well the team played against their hapless opponents. “Western Bulls is not an easy team to play against, but credit to our team because we have not only beaten them, but also got a bonus out of it,” he said.

“Western Bulls have been denying many teams points and for us to give an-all round performance, is a great step for the team in the Kenya Cup,” he added.

Strathmore are top of the table standings with a maximum 25 points from five games, which is only one point more than second-placed Nakuru RFC. The defending champions have 24 points after they were awarded five points for their walk-over against would-be opponents, University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine.

According to Nakuru coach Dominique Habimana, they will accept the five points, but are annoyed that Mean Machine failed to honour the fixture, which was to be played at Nakuru Athletics Club. “We have been awarded the maximum points, but it compromises on our aggregate score,” he explained.

“We wanted to play against Machine so that we can score as many points as possible, but now we will just have to score those points against another team,” he added. They play Impala in their next fixture.

Nakuru are closely followed by Kenya Commercial Bank, who were denied the bonus point by Impala in their 22-3 victory. KCB now have 23 points from five games and are the only other team apart from Strathmore and Nakuru, who are unbeaten in the league.

Meanwhile, national Sevens rugby team continued with their torrid run in the HSBC Sevens World Series, as they crashed out of Main Cup contention at the Nelson Mandela Bay Sevens in South Africa.

Kenya lost 29-5 in their first match against Wales, which they followed up with an embarrassing 38-7 loss to hosts South Africa.

Once again, Kenya was poor in defence, missing their one-on-one tackles, while when they had possession, they opted to always go for contact as opposed to passing the ball and looking for spaces. The team looked dejected and could barely compete against hosts, who are on home turf and are in superb form after winning the Dubai Sevens last weekend.