Kenya outclass Uganda to seize Elgon Cup advantage

Head coach Ian Snook marked his managerial debut on a winning note as the national rugby 15s team Simbas emerged 34-16 victors over Uganda in Saturday’s Elgon Cup first leg at the capital Kampala.

Simbas scored five tries, made three conversions and put away one penalty against Uganda’s one converted try and three penalties as the visitors seized early advantage.

Snook’s men wasted no time racing into the control seat, taking a healthy 24-9 lead into the breather and kept their momentum to see the win through after the interval.

KCB RFC winger Jacob Ojee went over the whitewash twice with veteran lock Oliver Mangeni adding his name on the scoresheet with a beautiful try.

The clinical Darwin Mukidza converted all the tries and went on to slot in a penalty after Uganda was punished for causing an infringement.

A series of handling error’s cost both teams the much needed bonus points soon after the break with penalties and infringements being the order of the second half of the match.

Uganda were first penalized for holding onto ball with Kenya fly-half Isaac Adimo finding touch in Uganda’s 22 and gifting a Line out for Kenya but the forwards failed to make it count.

The home team was again penalized for an offside at the back-foot with Kenya capitalizing to secure yet another line out in Uganda’s five-yard. However the Simbas again knocked on at the try box and failed to add to their 24-9 lead.

With Uganda trailing on their home turf they brought in debutant Simon Olet for Marvin Odongo and Ian Muyani for Eric Mulamula in the 50th minute.

The substitution proved fruitful within minute after Olet forced a turn-over for Uganda and gained an advantage in the attack as a result.

Kenya were penalized for failing to release a tackled player with Uganda going for touch in Kenya’s 22 and a clear chance to add points on the scoreboard.

Uganda forwards composed themselves in the line out to set up a maul and got its first try from debutant Simon Olet Conversion by Kabras Sugar talisman Philip Wokorach to gain points for the hometeam scores reading 16:29 still In favour of the visiting Simbas.

The try from Olet breathed life to the Ugandas after they put Kenya on a foot race, Kenya succumbing to the pressure to lose the ball in a forward pass forcing a Scrum down in favour of Uganda that they failed to utilise.

However with the buzzer sounding Kenya ochestrated a well worked move that saw flanker Elkeans Musonye score the bonus try for Kenya before Biko Adema confirming the win with a well worked try by the Kenyan back line after Adema slice through the Uganda defence unscerthed to score at the far right corner but Mukidza was not successful with the extra point’s.

Isaac Adimo who was outstanding with his kicks was awarded the man of the match after the 34-16 deservingly win.

The Elgon Cup second leg will be played at the RFUEA ground’s on Saturday July 7, 2018 in Nairobi which will double up as Africa Gold Cup and 2019 World Cup qualifiers to be held in Japan.