Eyes trained on Dala Sevens action in Kisumu
By Alex Njue, August 10, 2019
Rugby lovers descend on Mamboleo Showground over the weekend for the third stop of the 2019 Stanbic National sevens circuit, Kabeberi Sevens champs and current standings leader Mwamba on a title defending mission faced by promising opposition.
Dala Sevens defending champs will be hoping to retain their title backed up by their impressive graph and back-to-back meetings with participating teams.
Mwamba, winners in Meru County on July 28 are seeded tops in Pool A of Dala Sevens, set to play Northern Suburbs, hosts Silverstone Kisumu and Impala Saracens.
They conceded just four tries in Kabeberi, an improvement noted by international speedster and scoring machine Collins Injera, who promise to maintain their new graph in the six-leg series.
“In the first leg in Kakamega we reached the cup semi-finals after losing to KCB but we finished third, took our lessons and worked with coach Kevin Wambua on major areas especially our execution and in Kabeberi we hit teams with big margins and only conceded four tries so our focus in Dala is to keep up the pace for our seasonal targets,” said Collins Injera in an exclusive with Wikendi Sport.
Kakamega Sevens finalists KCB and Homeboyz will be on a mission to restore order, to meet in an action-promising pool fixture at 5pm Saturday, the Deejays welcoming back Michael Wanjala, Jeff Oluoch, Brian Wandera and Bush Mwale to bolster coach Jason Hector’s squad that was boosted by Kenyan internationals Alvin Otieno and Charles Omondi in Kabeberi.
KCB on their end welcome Andrew Amonde, Jacob Ojee, Vincent Onyala, Levy Amunga, Samuel Asati and Geoffrey Okwatch in their line-up. Blak Blad and Vihiga Granites complete Pool D. Vihiga Granites will taste first Division One action since their inception in 2018.
KCB, Homeboyz and Nakuru will hope to better their current second, third and fourth placings in the standings respectively, Nakuru headlining Pool C that welcomes Kabras, Mean Machine and Nondescripts.
The third stop of the circuit also welcomes back-transformed Kabras Sugar set to launch new Fijian and South African New signings after missing Kabeberi leg whilst unlucky Harlequins could not be saved from tasting the dreaded second-tier competition by repeat invitation by hosting Silverstone Kisumu after falling to the relegation axe for the second time in a row.
Kabeberi Sevens runners up coach Gibson Weru will back on stage with a reformed Menengai Oilers squad seeking to lift a maiden sevens title after falling to 27-7 to Mwamba in their first attempt in Kabeberi.
“We started off our campaign by winning challenge trophy in Kakamega to finishing second in Kabeberi and we met a more experienced opponent in the finals.
We failed to be clinical enough to convert our chances with a young side with four players turning up for their Sevens series debut but we will keep on working hard and winning a tournament is our next target,” Menengai Oilers head coach Gibson Weru spoke to Wikendi Sport.