Rugby: Masinde Muliro thrash Kitale as Bulls and Kisumu draw

Revived Masinde Muliro thrash Kitale as Bulls and Kisumu draw MMUST RFC Captain Samwel Mbeche (right) in action against Kisii RFC in a past sevens action.(Photo: Washington Onyango/Standard)

Kenya national rugby Sevens player Timothy Mmasi inspired Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) to their second consecutive win in the 2019 KRU Championships.

MMUST defeated Kitale RFC 21-5 in Kakamega over the weekend.

The students played a high tempo and physical game that was a replica of the 2018 KRU nationwide finals.

And it only took 12 minutes for the students to take the lead with the in-form Mmasi, who played as an eighth man, crossing the try line after sprinting past the Kitale defence.

Former Kakamega High School rugby player Ejakait Okwemba missed the conversion but did not disappoint 17 minutes later when he neatly converted a penalty to lead 8-0 at the half hour mark.

The visitors then tried to take the game to MMUST with hard knocks and great pushing but the students took the advantage with Mark Wasamba touching down 10 minutes before half time.

Center Tyson Juma made the work even harder for the visitors with a last-minute try before the break as MMUST led 18-0. Winger Okwemba missed two consecutive conversions.

In the second half, Kitale made some changes that changed their game leading to an early try by Jaffred Ndasaba to bring the scores to 18-5.

But the Kakamega students made sure victory was theirs after substitute winger John Bahati converted a late penalty for a 21-5 victory.

MMUST head coach Ahaya Ochieng said he was happy with the win and the performance of his team.

“We played very well today. Getting three tries in the first half, which was not possible in our last game, is a plus. Our focus now is to try and win every game so that we can catch up with the leaders Bulls and USIU,” Ahaya said.

In Kisumu, the highly anticipated derby pitting Kisumu RFC and Western Bulls ended in a draw with the lakeside team securing a point in the dying minutes of the game.

Kisumu were the first to cross the try line after Brian Okinda beat the Bulls defence but missed the conversion.