Nondies end ten-year title drought

By BS Mulavi

Nondies RFC finally broke their ten year trophy drought by clinching the 31st edition of the Impala Floodlight tournament title on Saturday night.

The Red Lions were taken to task by the defending champions by Mean Machine but they eventually broke the 12-12 stalemate at full time to emerge 17-12 victors following a Calvins Biko try during sudden death.

Speaking to FeverPitch after the emphatic victory a visible elated captain Joseph Wachira lauded the boys effort. “It’s been ten years without anything to show for our efforts and it is finally good to win something especially at the beginning of the season.”

Wachira praised the work ethics showed by the team enroute to the final.

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“Today’s achievement signifies the amount of work put in by the team to get here,” Wachira said.

“We just need to keep up with the hard work and hope that we can keep piling the victories,” he added.

Territorial advantage

Nondies will be pleased by their display after enjoying the lions share of possession and territorial advantage in the game. They, however, lost concentration at critical junctures to allow Mean Machine to claw back and give them a difficult time.

The White shirts will have to be wary of the ‘curse’ that has been known to plague Floodlight winners in recent years.

None of the winners have been known to have a great season after the tournament and so the Floodlight tournament cannot be used as a clear indicator if a team will be a dominating player in the season.

Previous winners

Examples include previous winners such as Strathmore and Mean Machine, who after winning the title went on to finish the league at the tails end.

Wachira refused to be caught up in talk of the team’s success this season and insisted they will be just taking one game at a time.

“It is not for us to think that now that we have won the floodlight, we will also win all the other tournaments, we just need to work hard and ensure we win each and every game and then take account at the end of the season.”

Meanwhile Nakuru RFC claimed the third spot after a convincing 36-5 victory over the hosts Impala.

Impala’s narrow 7-6 victory over the Kenya Cup champions in the opening round of the tournament turned out to be a fluke as they lost all the games that followed after that.

Many had thought their first victory in the tournament was an indicator of their resurgence but now they feel otherwise. Not take anything away from Nakuru, who played their hearts out and seemed like the team who wanted the victory more.