BY DAVID ONJILI
It is often hailed as a sport of gentlemen played by hooligans, and true, from the massive support it enjoys both at home and internationally, rugby is one of the most popular sports in this country. Interestingly it divides opinion in equal measure especially before the Kenyan public.
In 1995 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa, the home team captained by François Pienaar beat New Zealand 15-12 to lift the Webb Ellis Cup courtesy of an extra time drop goal from Joel Strankly. The Late Nelson Mandela used it as a tool to bring unity to an apartheid South Africa, where blacks and whites would come together for the common good and actually win a tournament.
In Kenya there are those who dread the sport and rightly so. Rugby events like the Masaku 7s quickly come to mind, where the weekend is dedicated to alcohol, smoking shisha and partying late in the night. Images have been splashed in the media of skimpily dressed women and inebriated men sleeping in trenches with little or no concern to the game itself yet to others, rugby is a sport and a life. Collins Injera, Billy Odhiambo and Andrew Amonde are all household names as they have been great sporting ambassadors to the nation so depending on whom you choose to listen to, it remains a sport that sharply divides opinion and very popular especially among the urbanites.
The sport itself is divided into two, the rugby 15s and the most popular one in Kenya, the rugby 7s. Just like in the names, the 7s game is played by 7 players a side while the 15s has 15. As a nation, Kenya has enjoyed continental fame with the 7s game. We compete in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and Commonwealth Games. Kenya is currently a member of the 15-core team with a guaranteed place in the World Series, which has 10 events each season.
Kenya Rugby 7s team honours and stars
The major triumph of the team came in 2016 at the Singapore Sevens where the team got her first and only title so far at the world stage by beating the much fancied Fiji 30-7 in the final, who have themselves won the Rugby World Cup Sevens on two occasions. This was a just reward to the boys who have helped raise the profile of the game. That it was won with a local coach, Benjamin Anyimba, was welcome relief to a nation that has always sought solutions to her sporting problems by seeking to hire foreign coaches.
The team has also reached two main cups with losses to South Africa of 7-26 at the Adelaide Sevens and losing 19-24 to England at the Wellington Sevens. While currently there seems to be a decline in performance from the team as wrangles, which are always a common feature in sports in this country continue to eat up the sport.
The team has also represented the nation at four Rugby World Cup Sevens editions making her debut in 2001 where the nation finished 19th. The team later featured in 2005 finishing 19th, in 2009 making an impressive 3rd place finish and in 2013 where it finished 4th in a tournament that was won by New Zealand who beat England 33-0 in the final in Moscow Russia.
Interestingly, the sport has been built around a core of world beaters led by Collins Injera who leads the world tries score chat with 238 tries ahead of England’s Dan Norton who comes second with 233 tries and Argentina’s Santiago Gomez Cora in 3rd with 230 tries. Injera alongside his elder brother Humphrey Khayange, Andrew Amonde, Biko Adema, Willy Ambaka, Benjamin Ayimba who later led them to triumph in the Singapore Sevens circuit as coach have been the back bone of the team over the years, alongside a blend of new and exciting talents that the union has brought up with special mention to Billy Odhiambo and Willy Ambaka.
The Safari Sevens
This is an annual rugby 7s premier tournament held annually in Nairobi to attract rugby enthusiasts from the world over to not only come watch the game but also get a feel of the rich Kenyan heritage. It is an event where not just the game but fashion and business takes center stage, currently renamed after title sponsors, The Safaricom Safari Sevens, it has moved venue to the unpopular Kasarani Safaricom Stadium which most attendees deem as too far and does not create the ideal ‘rugby atmosphere’. The tournament was first hosted in the RFUEA Grounds, which is the home to Kenyan Rugby along Ngong Road later moved to Nyayo National Stadium to accommodate the ever-increasing fan base before they finally settled for Kasarani Stadium in 2013.
The inaugural tournament was held in 1996 and the final was between Public School Wanderers and Zimbabwe, while Kenya beat Uganda 38-12 in the Plate Finals. The tournament would later grow to attract top teams like the Emerging Springboks, Western Province, London Irish and Fiji. With high profile teams taking part, the fans numbers increased and the sponsors saw it wise to move to the larger Nyayo Stadium. This also led to ticket price increase of around 400% to around Sh900 for entrance. Those figures never dumped the fans’ spirit but in 2015 due to internal politics within the federation, the tournament almost failed to take place and even when it did the fans numbers were extremely low and in last year’s edition, the trend of poor turn up kept on and the union, which seems to have had a truce amongst the warring sides has an uphill task to bring back the fans to the ground.
The quality of the tournament too has declined with majority of the participating teams not sending their strongest squads lately. This is a challenge to the Kenya Rugby Union, which will surely define the legacy the current office holders will leave.
A team in decline
The Kenya 7s team is a team in decline lately, apart from the purple patch they had in the Singapore Sevens circuit, if current results are anything to go by. They have become mere participants and not competitors. The 2016 Olympics in Brazil was a case in point, back from the triumph in Singapore, the team spent most of their time as socialites giving interviews to media than preparing for the tournament and losing 4 of their 5 games in Brazil was a just reward for the lack of commitment they had shown in preparation. They let the nation down big time. This was followed by the dismissal of Coach Benjamin Ayimba and the circus around appointment of a new head coach did the sport no justice. Current Kenya 7s head coach Mr Innocent Simiyu, a former player himself has an arduous task to awaken this sleeping giant and injuries to his key players has done him no justice. As time ticks by, we can only watch and hope that normalcy returns and our boys start flying the flag high again.
Special mention.
It would be unfair not to mention teams like Nondescript RFC and Kenya Harlequins. These were the pioneers of the game, and lately Mwamba RFC, Strathmore and Homeboyz have been a revelation. Yet, the demise of Oscar Wayodi while playing the game is a wakeup call to the rugby fraternity on the need to look into the health of players before giving them a clean bill of health to compete. One can only hope that a new generation of world-beaters like the Collins Injera one comes to the rescue of the game. Who will stand to be counted?
