Mwamba Kabras through to Cup quarters

Defending champions Kabras Sugar had a stormy start in day one of Christie Sevens beating Strathmore Leos 41-7 and MKU Thika by 34-5 at the RFUEA grounds to sail to the Cup quarters set for Sunday.

Kabras huge wins was perhaps a corded message to title rivals ahead of Sunday’s meeting with an equally enterprising KCB.

Ugandan international Philip Wokorach, fresh from international duty hit a brace for Kabras as experienced Felix Ayange, Dan Sikuta and Jacob Okumba crossed the whitewash each against the students to book a spot in the quarters.

At the same time, hosts Harlequins thumped MKU Thika 38-12 in the first pool A match before shutting Leos dream of playing in the quarters, handing them a 19-10 defeat.

The afternoon went awry for Leos after they lost 7-12 to MKU.

The inclusion on the “Imonyi brothers” Khayange (Humphrey), Injera (Collisn) and Agevi (Mike) to the Mwamba squad looks to have instilled new blood to the team as they played with swagger, confidence and panache, winning all their games.

Mwamba, also known as “The Black Shirts”, ably kept the pressure in check  beating table leaders Homeboyz 22-15 in a match that elicited fireworks.

Legendary Khayange gave Mwamba a 5-0 lead before Leonard Mugaisi showed a clean pair of heels  sprinting over 40 metres to touch down at the other end to level the scores.

Mugaisi was a nuisance to the Mwamba team and was at it again, holding onto to his own kick to restore Homeboyz advantage, hauling the scores to 10-5.

However, the “Deejays” received a blow after Humphrey Mulama was  sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle to hand Mwamba the advantage.

Minutes later, Kenya 7s speedstar Collins Injera offloaded the ball to Ronnie Omondi who made two steps to touchdown for Mwamba, leveling scores to 10-10.

Omondi would finally grab his brace at the hooter handing Homeboyz the first ever opening loss of the 2017 National Sevens circuit season.

Meanwhile, third placed Impala Saracens had a fine start pounding Mean Machine 36-15 in their opening pool B game.The  “Saries” would later on for the second time cross the 30 point mark, whipping championship side Kisii RFC  34-12 to book a spot in Sunday’s Cup quarters.

Nakuru Rugby Club also joined the big guns in qualification for Sunday’s quarters after going past Kisii RFC 29-10 before whipping the campus boys, Mean Machine, 12-7.

Monate Akwei’s brace was enough to send them through to the quarters.

KCB joined the likes of Kabras, Quins, Nakuru and Impala on the list of teams with a 100 percentage win record after thrashing Kenyatta University side Blak Blad 22-0 in a pool D match and cementing their win with a 24-0 win against newly promoted Daystar Falcons to qualify for the quarters.

Cup quarters:

Quins v Oilers

Kabras v KCB

Mwamba v Impala

Nakuru v Homeboyz

Challenge trophy:

Nondies v Kisii

MKU Thika v Daystar

Blak Blad v Strathmore

Western Bulls v Mean Machine

Report by Edwin Mbare