Black Shirts fall to Harlequin in Kenya Cup match marred by physical brawls at RFUEA grounds

By BS MULAVI

Mwamba and Kenya Harlequin players exchange blows in their Kenya Cup match at RFUEA grounds, yesterday. [PHOTO: BONIFACE OKENDO/STANDARD]

Kenya Harlequin solidified their fourth position in the Kenya Cup with a 22-10 victory over Mwamba RFC at the RFUEA Grounds on yesterday evening.

In an eyesore of a match, the two teams failed to get their systems going and to vent their frustrations at their poor performance they instead opted to result in physical  brawls in the second half.

Both teams could barely string along three passes before dropping the ball, which meant the flow of the game was broken down on several occasions, making it hard to distinguish which was the dominating team and deserved the victory.

Quins, however, will be happy to emerge from the murk with four vital points, on the premise that they were the team that took its chances, when they were presented to them.

Individual brilliance from the likes of Sidney Ashioya helped the former champs to pounce on loose balls to mount a counter attack on the visitors and score three vital tries.

On the other hand, Mwamba will be upset that they failed to make use of their superior possession and better territorial advantage over the hosts.

A try from Mark Okwaro was all the Black Shirts had to show for their push in the second half to overcome a 22-3 deficit they had accumulated during the first half of the game.

Even though both teams will be annoyed at their dismal performance over the weekend, they will also be angry at the referee for not taking control of the game early in the second half, when the first signs of a brawl started to emerge.

It only took the full disintegration of the game in the 70th minute for the referee to unleash the yellow card on Harlequin flanker Max Theuri after both sets of forwards decided to unleash blows to substitute their inability to play the game well on the bright, sunny afternoon.

With this being the only match of the weekend, the two teams will be disappointed that they were not able to offer an exciting match to fans at the venue who had to settle for the lackluster performance.

Mwamba now remain on eighth position with 27 points, ten adrift of fourth placed Harlequin with only three rounds of play remaining before the semi-finals of the league on the first weekend of March.

Mwamba’s following games include Strathmore RFC, Nakuru RFC and Eldoret RFC which might as well signal their dismal chances of qualifying for the semi-finals.                                               

Quins will play Eldoret RFC next weekend which will give them some breathing space after a tumultuous January against the top teams in the league.   

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