Paul Murunga was finally confirmed as the head coach of the national sevens team last week with Kevin Wambua as his assistant.
Murunga, as stated in my previous articles, has been in the national sevens rugby management set up having worked as an assistant under Benjamin Ayimba.
With the struggles the board has had financially, it seemed an obvious choice to recruit locally.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that Muranga is not qualified because he is a local coach and lacks international pedigree.
We have had privilege of having local coaches who have performed well, the likes of Ayimba and the man Murunga is replacing, Innocent Simiyu.
I am sure Murunga will do a good job going by his track record with Homeboyz who have been the pacesetters in the local sevens rugby circuit for the last three years.
All the best to Pau on his new role, but more importantly lets pray for an end to all the circus and confusion that has characterized the relationship of the technical bench, players and the KRU board.
Moving on to the 15s game, the Floodlit rugby tournament kicks off this weekend at Impala Club on Ngong Road, Nairobi.
Bitter rivals Impala and Harlequins will meet in the quarter-finals pairing, while defending champions KCB will meet the Stanbic Mwamba.
Homeboyz will meet Nakuru Top Fry, while Strathmore Leos will meet Nondescript in the other pairing.
‘Floodies’ is the unofficial 15s rugby curtain-raiser and it will be interesting to see what the pre-season training in South Africa has done to KCB’s pedigree.
KCB has dominated the 15s game for the last three seasons and it be interesting to see who will offer a credible challenge.
Meanwhile, Quins are reported to have locked in former Kenyan international Charles Cardovillis as their head coach after being axed by Kabras Sugar recently.
Elsewhere, the Varsity League is headed for the third round with the University of Nairobi and Kenyatta University laying down the markers as the teams to beat, but we will see how things turn out at the business end of the tournament.
Internationally, the Rugby Championship came to a pulsating conclusion with a cracking game in Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld Stadium with a last gasp conversion from Richie Mounga sealing the win for the All Blacks over a resurgent Springboks outfit that were way ahead with less than 10 minutes to go.
The South Africans had totally out-muscled the defending champions in all facets of the game.
Another famous win for the Boks was setting up nicely until some bizarre substitutions from the Boks head coach halted momentum of the host, allowing All Blacks go for the kill in the dying minutes of the game.
Despite the loss, South African prospects have gone up since Rassie Erasmus took over as head coach.
As the teams head north for the autumn tests, it will be interesting to see how the Springboks perform in Europe to get an objective assessment on their development.
Finally, all the best to our sevens team heading to the Africa Men’s Sevens tournament in Jemmel, Tunisia, over the weekend.
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