Heavyweights Kakamega rip through Miathane in rugby 15s opener

Kenya Secondary School Sports Association rugby 15s defending champions Kakamega Boys stunned competition newbies Miathene Boys 59-13, in the opening match of Pool A in the ongoing nationals at the Kangaru School, Embu County.

Miathene, otherwise known as ‘Matosa’, had started brightly by scoring a try through Evans Mutethia in the opening six minutes, successfully converted to open a 7-0 lead against the Western Bulls.

However, the Bulls responded in style with a try in the 17th minute by David Kamau, to reduce the deficit to 7-5 after missing the conversion. Five minutes later,  the Bulls added another try to shake the debutants Matosa rythm.

Tonny Owino scored two consecutive tries before Stephen Wafula added another  to send take the match to a whopping 20-7 lead, going to the break.

A half time rallying by Miathene coach Patrick Muli didn’t seem to salvage much as Kakamega opened the second half impressively, Jovin Omondi touching down with for another try four minutes into the second half.

A penalty conceded by Mein Keanu in the sixth minute helped Miathene extend score to 10 but Kakamega responded almost immediately with a spectacular run by Stephen Wafula. Miathene were hitherto on damage limitation mode as the scoreboard read 35-10 in favour of the destructive western bulls.

Kakamega added three more tries through Sakina Emmanuel but conceded three penalties to end the game at 59-13 in their favor.

Kakamega Coach Amos Wamanga expressed satisfaction with his boys response despite starting slowly in the opener clash.

“Our reaction was good, we regained our organisation and managed to finish the game well.  As I had said earlier, we will take a game after game and see where that gets us.  We are optimistic of making it to the finals and defending our title,” Wamanga observed.

On his side,  Miathene coach Patrick Muli blamed stage freight for the loss, keeping faith they will recover in the remaining two fixtures, to make it to the quarter finals.

“I’m pleased with how we started,  but two consecutive tries from Kakamega shocked the boys.  They lost organisation and there was no good communication. We will regroup and strategize on how to win the rest of the pool games to qualify for Quarters,” he said.

At the time of publishing this account, St. Mary’s Yala are squaring it out with Alliance Boys in the other Group A match.