Tough encounters as Kabeberi sevens tournament takes place
Rugby
By
BS MULAVI
| Aug 10, 2013
By BS MULAVI
Mwamba will be playing no catch up in today’s Kabeberi Sevens tournament at the Railways Club.
According to head coach Meli Wainibula the biggest reason they lost 32-10 to Strathmore in the finals of the Dala Sevens in Kisumu last weekend was a slow start and loss of concentration.
A mistake he is not willing to repeat as they host the second leg of the Safaricom Sevens Circuit.
“We want to win the overall circuit, the same as all the other big teams,” Meli told FeverPitch. “Last season we hit ground zero where we were featuring nowhere in the top four, we want to become serious contenders for the title even in the absence of our Sevens International players,” he explained.
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Utmost respect
“We know it will not be easy and we will give every team we meet the respect they deserve,” said Meli. “Our pool is quite challenging and we will have to kick off every game with the intensity it deserves so that we do not play catch up as we did last weekend.”
Mwamba are in Pool B alongside Homeboyz, Savanna Stormers and Egerton University, arguably a reasonably manageable pool for a team of Mwamba’s stature.
One of the toughest pools in the tournament is Pool D where the overall defending champions Harlequin play resurgent Impala, stubborn Mean Machine and Kenyatta University side Blak Blad.
Speaking to our sister publication Game Yetu Impala team Manager Nick Abok lauded his team’s performance in the first leg of the circuit in where they finished in fifth position.
Consistency search
According to Abok, Impala is now looking for consistency, where they intend to finish the Kababeri Sevens with nothing less than fifth spot. After a consistent display they then look for improvement with Abok sounding bullish about their ambitions. This is a marked improvement for Impala who has for the past few years fallen off the radar of the top teams in Kenya.
“We intend to contend for the overall title and I believe we have players who can play against any top team in the circuit.
We just need to minimise on some of the errors we made in the games in Kisumu and we will be okay,” he added.
The Kabeberi Sevens 2013.this year the event will be a-32 team event and the Division One games will be hosted at the Railways Club and Division II games will be at Mean Machine’s University of Nairobi (UoN) grounds.
Division Two games will start at 8.20 am with the first seven games being played at Railways Club before the encounters move to UoN.
All Division One games will be played at Railways Club and on day two. Some Division II games will also be played at Railways Club.