Rugby: Oilers in tough Floodlit final against KCB today

Oscar Simiyu of KCB dives for a try in their Kenya Cup match against Menengai Oilers at RFUEA grounds on Nov 17, 2018. [Jonah Onyango]

Menengai Oilers head coach Gibson Weru has said his team is happy to bear the underdog tag in today’s Impala Floodlit final against seven-time winners KCB.

The match, which will be played at the Impala Club at 7.30pm, will see the bankers bank on their pedigree against Weru’s charges who ooze talent but lack big stage experience.

While KCB are chasing a third successive Floodlit title, Oilers are eyeing their maiden Floodlit silverware at the first time of asking.

“We are the underdogs and that takes away the pressure from us. I will be happy to carry that underdog title into the final and have a team which can go out, compete and win. It’s a matter of preparing the boys properly and see if they can be able to execute well; if they do, we’ll be very happy and if they don’t, we’ll pick the lessons and move them to the Kenya Cup season,” Weru said.

Oilers and KCB faced off in the 2018-19 Kenya Cup with the bankers winning home and away on their way to an eighth league title.

Should KCB, who beat Impala Saracens to win the 2017 and 2018 titles, triumph tomorrow night, they will have completed their second three-peat in the Floodlit tournament having claimed back-to-back titles between 2013 and 2015.

Mean Machine and Impala are the only other teams which have won the competition thrice in a row.

Oilers’ only appearance in a major 15s final was in the 2017-18 Kenya Rugby Union Championship when they fell to Mean Machine in Nakuru as both sides earned promotion to the Kenya Cup the following season.