Papa blast past Kiboko in Bamburi contest

By BS MULAVI

Papa Coach Paul Odera has claimed he was surprised by how big a margin they beat Kiboko in their first game of the Bamburi Rugby Super Series.

Papa registered an emphatic 53-0 victory at the RFUEA grounds and Odera was all smiles after what he termed as an impressive show from the team. “I wouldn’t say I was surprised by the score itself, I was rather surprised by how well the team played together,” he said.

“From the way we played today, we totally deserved the big margin,” he went on to explain. “The backline players and the forwards combined really well and some of the tries we scored today, were quite beautiful, starting from the build-up.” Even though Odera felt they had a fairy tale start to the tournament, he refused to get drawn into talk that his team could be one of the favourites to scoop the overall trophy. “I haven’t watched how the other teams have played like yet, so thinking of ourselves as one of the favourites will be presumptuous,” he said.

“I can only say we have a strong team with enormous potential and we are simply taking one game at a time,” he added.

Even though Papa had a star studded performance, Odera still feels there are areas that need improvement, “We need to work more on our set pieces especially the scrum,” he quipped. “Our body positions in the scrums were not right and that is an area we need to work on throughout the week before we play Victoria right here in Nairobi,” he said.

Although Papa did not concede any tries, Odera also feels that they will need to work more on their defense to ensure that when they come against tougher opposition they would be ready for them.

Odera went further to heap praise on the elder members of his squad, who he said, carried the team through the day. “Players like Lavin Asego, Curtis Lilako and Dennis Mwanja, showed a fair amount of experience and leadership which was pivotal in our victory today, he concluded.

In another match at the same grounds, Nyumbu demolished Victoria 70-15. Nyumbu displayed a classy game to emerge winners.