Malindi High and Kyadondo teams and getting back to this space!

 I've been meaning to get back to this blog, it has been a while and lots of things have developed in the last few years.

1) Malindi RFC bloomed and then crashed very quickly.  Sadly, covid predictably killed rugby at the coast, and deprived the club of its main pitch at Malindi high.  Long story short, the club was offered a pitch at the golf club, started attracting sponsorship from the malindi expat community and others including the golf club, some great work from Tropical/Dream of Africa/Sandies, the Driftwood members and then the fishing club members and I believe that all the Malindi RFC players got free fishing club memberships.  Was all great, however I think sadly the classic thing happened.  Money killed the club.  It wasn't mature enough to manage it, lots of questions were asked as to who was making decisions and how accountable they were, this created mistrust and eventually the club crashed. I tried to stay out of it as I could see this coming and when I intervened at the beginning I was accused of being a stick in the mud and of being too negative.  I was literally shouted out of a meeting at one point. This year I don't think they even entered any league or tournament...  I think there might have been a friendly or two over the summer when Simba came back and mobilised some guys but that's it.  

We had some talks amongst some of the more serious guys, and our goal now is to revive it but lower expectations.  Malindi cannot have a club where players have expectations of having all of their costs covered, let alone getting paid.  So we need to go back to everyone chips in and we are grateful for what we have.  Pole pole ndio mwendo.

2) Rebirth of Malindi High Rugby.  I, like everyone else, was stuck during Covid.  And... I like everyone else tried to make lemonade from the lemons we were all dealt.  One of the great things that came out of this was that I managed to reconnect with Malindi high, and I managed to train almost every day with form ones and twos at the time, making sure they have the basics as always.

As time passed, I managed to talk the Kithi brothers into coaching the team, and they have successfully.  It's great because they bring the old boys' spirit, even some of the systems we had put in years ago with Waweru, and the team is just humming.  Those form 1s and 2s are now form 3s and 4s, so needless to say they are smashing teams.  It's great.  

They are doing an amazing job with Lumumba and it looks like the new Headmaster is much more supportive of rugby than in the previous last few years although we are having a little trouble getting him to help us organise friendlies or participate in tournaments.

Sadly they lost in the County finals for 15s, but that is the best run in a while.  They are currently in the sevens season and they are on fire.  They left a wake of destruction in the sub-counties, beating most teams by 30 points including in the final and only having been scored on in one game.

They are currently in the County Championships, and facing the new nemesis Garashi in the Semis (if they make it!) if they can get past the quarters.  Today they played some magical attacking rugby, literally tearing teams apart with speed and good ball handling.  It was exciting to watch and it felt like the old days.  I'm excited because if they go through I might be able to see them play in the regionals and god forbid, the tournament after that, which is their stated goal.  I think they can make it if they stay focused... but this is always the biggest challenge at this levels.  The boys get to these tournaments which are like parties and there are lots of temptations... but lets hope!

Video of the first try against Mwareni!  The scores of the first two games were 37 and 27 nil!

3) Kyadonodo Rugby!  In Kampala I started training a group of young underprivileged boys every Saturday.  I did it for about a year and started to push for games for the boys to play.  We managed to take them to play a team in Jinja and then the club leadership approached me and told me that they would like me to prepare them for the DBA cup, a U15 tournament in Nairobi that features Regional representational sides from all the main rugby regions of Kenya plus a Kampala team.

It's been fun, I guess everyone that reads these blogs know how much I love coaching kids.  The club is great but my one frustration is that I only get them for a day (actually we started training both Saturdays and Sundays as we got closer to the tournament in mid May).  But I would really like to help organise a feeder system where high school teams feed into the club "academy" so that we don't have to work on basics all the time.  Most of the boys have not played a real rugby match with uniforms and a ref, or at least not a 15s one, so it has been challenging but rewarding.  I was even lucky enough to get Chibudu up for a weekend from Kigali to help put in some defensive systems.  Cheers Chibudu!

Anyway, hopefully I will find the time to write some more about these great developments.  Thanks as always for reading, sharing and commenting on this Blog.  I love feedback and new contacts etc.  Always trying to make rugby stronger in East Africa!  Kenya and Uganda should definitely be in the top 15 in the world rankings for 15s!!!!!!!!

Amen :)

NOTHING IS OVER UNTIL YOU STOP TRYING

 This post was written by Victor Chianda 

The club is in the process of a renewal, and we have decided to have various club members post on the blog in order to increase participation and visibility.  All contributors are welcome!

The above motto comes from a Nike advert, but is a good metaphor for the dedication and commitment it takes to play any sport and especially a high impact contact sport like rugby on a serious level. And by serious level I mean playing the sport beyond the basic amateur or school ground. It is an established principle that engaging in organized sport  is a tried and tested method of building not just the  body but  mental  strength of character that is guaranteed to serve a young person well in his life. This fortitude and discipline can be transferred to  all other areas  including career, academics and relationships with almost guaranteed good results.

Nairobi school, my alma mater, one of the pioneer rugby schools  and a dominant force in the high school rugby scene( at least back in my day) used to have the unofficial motto ‘in Patch, we make men’. This had a lot to do with the strong rugby culture and resulting adulation for mental and physical toughness that anyone who passed through the school had to endure. (The emphasis on physicality may have had something to do with the widespread culture of bullying prevalent at the time, but that is a story for another day.)  It goes without saying that for the uninitiated the Nairobi school experience was rough, but eventually the naïve, and scrawny early teen who initially walked through  the school gates at the beginning of his secondary school education would definitely be transformed into a savvy,  and independent all-rounder capable of holding his own in any situation,  by the time he walked out the school gates, four years later. Of course some eggs had to be broken to make the omelet, again, a story for another day.

Kobe Bryant who is arguably one of the greatest basket ballers of all time is once quoted as saying when he was asked about the  kind of legacy he would like to leave  behind  or how best he would like to be remembered by latter generations and I paraphrase, that …’anybody aspiring to be better or great at something needs to understand that the important thing is the journey, the process…that if young people can understand that; then he has done his job as a mentor…and they will realize that as long as they dedicate and focus themselves, they won’t accomplish their dreams, their dreams will come true.’

These wise words are in my view highly appropriate to the Malindi Rugby club. 

Progression is a Weider principle and some say it is indeed the most important law of bodybuilding. This principle holds true in very many areas of life. It would greatly serve anybody who aspires to be good at any sport and is not limited to rugby. The benefits of staying focused and steadily improving your game cannot be gainsaid. The focus and discipline  it takes to play rugby means  that without  motivation, some may me tempted to take their eyes off the prize. The prize here being not necessarily a trophy or winning a tournament but improving yourself and becoming a better person, in all ways.  The game of rugby teaches one not just the benefits of physical exertion and discipline but also creates that kind of mental toughness that is necessary in an  unpredictable world. And  trains one  to deal with fears, doubts and insecurities that commonly deter the faint hearted. In the conflict between the right way and the easy way, it is definitely not the choice of least resistance. However in  the constant battle between your body, your mind and the devil on your shoulder that is always trying to discourage, those who do not lose heart will always prevail.

In fact some say rugby is a good metaphor for life. Looking at the journey; through physique development, recovery from the inevitable setbacks,  the highs and lows of winning and losing and the camaraderie. Lifelong friendships have been created on the pitch and off it especially considering the ‘boys’ and club house culture that goes along and is an accepted part of the game. My personal opinion is that  the recent move to house the team within the precincts of the Malindi members club was a stroke of  pure genius and will harness the synergies of both clubs.

The  Malindi Rugby club is definitely showing signs of progression and steady growth.  It is now definitely past its nascent phase having been in existence for several years now. The ongoing construction of its pitch to regulation standard and the growing social media presence are a testament to this. At the time of writing this article, representatives from Kenya Breweries; arguably the  key sponsor of the game in Kenya  are visiting the club to check on the going concerns. This is definitely a good omen. Should the upward trajectory be maintained for the foreseeable future ,there is no doubt the club will soon become a force to be reckoned with. And the sky will be the limit.

As long as the entire team stays united and focused, continues to keep its shoulders down and keeps grinding through that MF…. 

And to all the players ; whenever motivation stops, let discipline take over, and trust that it will carry you the rest of the way.

Ill finish with the words of another famous NIKE advert ‘Welcome to the  grind.’

Dedicated to the memory of Benjamin Ayimba 1976-2021

COVID 4 - 2 Malindi Rugby

 This post was written by Chibudu Nyiro

The club is in the process of a renewal, and we have decided to have various club members post on the blog in order to increase participation and  visibility.  All contributors are welcome!

The pandemic, just like everywhere else in the world, well apart from Australia and New Zealand has disrupted sporting activity and the smaller amateur clubs have hurt the most. Malindi was no exception, we could not have our high school boys out on the fields training and playing neither did the club get it any easier. The 2019/2020 season saw the Malindi high school rugby team win its way to the regional tournament but this streak unfortunately came to an end. The pandemic was getting its way in the country and cases continued to surge by the day, the government hence decided to ban any sporting activities and initiated a curfew and lockdown. Covid had won the first round of this; Covid 1 - Malindi rugby 0. Covid took a 2 - 0 lead as the club too suffered tremendously when the national government prohibited sports with sights to contain the pandemic. Contact sports across the country have since remained ‘banned’ at least for the time being.

With 2021, new directives came to pass that allowed students back into schools. However, any outsider was not allowed into any school campus and contact sports for the students was still prohibited by the ministry of health. This proved to be another winner for the ‘COVID’ as it took a quick 3 - 0 lead and extended it with a 4 - 0 lead when the club too could not use the facilities to train. Rugby in Malindi was surely taking up a good beating.

The rugby brains are not one to be defeated, a small gathering of Malindi residents led by Goeff Ingram a Kenyanised Kiwi came up with the perfect solution to the problem. Goeff Ingram introduced the club to potential sponsors Malindi Golf Club. The golf club elected to host the club and partition part of the range as a playing turf for the boys. The first meeting had our club captain, Sammy Khabiri reach out to the club and then later the club sent in their board to meet a few players from the rugby club. I honestly love this partnership, it offers a direct positive environment to the boys through mentorship, balance and support. The golf club’s vice chairman immediately supported two boys with their subscription fees and Goeff paid for 24 of the boys who showed up that day. Malindi rugby football club finally had a home, Covid 4 - Malindi rugby 1.

The golf club sees an opportunity with the rugby club. It offers an injection of youth into the club’s profile. Most of the rugby players, mainly from Malindi high, its rival Barani secondary school and obviously the ever-young Giriama maestro James Terjanian. With home ground fairly sorted out, the club went ahead and organised a few fundraising raffle competitions at the ever-supportive Driftwood Beach Club and from the proceeds bought balls, kit and financed a trip down to Mombasa for a touch rugby tournament. Rugby was back in Malindi and excitement was brewing. The boys participated with two squads who played each other in the quarter finals. Unfortunately, one had to leave the tournament while the other lost in the semi final but finished third in the tournament.

With the club back to playing some form of competitive rugby and winning while at it was a good indicator that Malindi rugby is slowly staging a comeback against the covid pandemic, so far Covid 4 - Malindi rugby 2.

It does not stop there; more developments are coming. Keep it here for cool stories and hopefully some tea afterwards :)

Kwaheri….

Malindi High wins 2017 district Championship

I am very happy to be coaching Malindi High again.  We had a great tournament again this year, we played a round robin and won all of our games in the tournament.  We only conceded 6 points in 5 games which by any measure is always impressive, and while the team had huge depth issues at the start of the tournament, we managed to get good game time to a good 15 players who had never contested an official match before the tournament.

I particularly like this group.  They have a drive and desire to learn which I haven’t seen from previous teams.  They are probably the fittest any Malindi team has ever been at this point.  I hope they can continue to build on that. Usually, we crash and burn in the County tournament and we use that experience as a wake up call to get the boys fit for the 7s tournaments, and sometimes they respond sometimes they don’t. 

As mentioned before, we were particularly thin in experience this year.  As you may have heard, Malindi was one of the schools that suffered from school burning incidents last year, there appeared to be some kind of a trend throughout boarding schools in Kenya.  In Malindi they burnt the library.  To my knowledge, no rugby players were involved, but as a result of the subsequent school closure, many students, especially form 3s  (who would have been form 4s this year) were sent to other schools.  The result is that we only have 4 form fours in our squad this year and many of the players that had experience were not back and are going to schools that don’t have rugby.  An additional challenge is that the indiscipline at the school has given ammunition to the “rugby haters” amongst the teachers at the school, thus restricting our ability to have the necessary amount of time with the team.  There have also been a plethora of inspirational talks, meetings etc etc that cut into time previously allotted to games.

We have taken the lemons and made lemonade. We used the discipline issue to tighten the discipline within the team.  I came down hard on senior players involved in minor incidents or who were not coming for training.  One player, a potential star was cut completely from the team for missing practice without telling anyone.  We made a point of cutting out prima donnas and we have pushed extremely hard on the physical preparation and as a result we are probably better prepared than ever before and we probably set foundations for success in years to come.  I really want the rugby players to be leaders in the school, both academically and morally.  In the past, I had teachers laud the team and say that the players stopped indiscipline, ideally I would like that to continue!

Our team is Form 2 heavy and thus quite small.  So we kept it simple.  We got fit, and ensured that we protect the ball as a priority.  Also, as is the hallmark of our teams, we tackle like beasts!  It means we are quite one dimensional, but I’ll take it, and the results were there, although the score lines aren’t as good as I’d hoped.

Malind 6 – Barani 3

Barani played well, were the only opposition with any shape at all and posed a threat but the boys played there game and pulled it off.  We missed a number of kicks though which is a problem we may have solved. Coached well by Koki, a Malindi RFC fullback who schooled at Muyeye.

Malindi 27 – Gede 3

The guys got all excited as predicted and started running sideways to score tries.  2^nd half saw many under experienced players get a chance on the pitch.

Malindi 6 – Mida 0

I played essentially a second team to try people out, the team was a bit shaken, but they got it in the end.  Scoreline should have been much higher but lack of finishing, and the boys took a bruising because they took to Mida’s unpolished game and tried to challenge them at it.

Malindi 20 – Langobaya 0

Played the first team in the first half and then subbed as much as possible.  By now we had a number of key injuries to key players from all the banging against unskilled teams, so 2^nd string inventions at fullback, and throughout the backs and in the back row.  Paid off in experience for young guys.  Watch out next year!

Malindi 6 – Muyeye 0

We were bracing for a bruising in this one and we got it.  Muyeye is always a tough team and they were coached by one of the Malindi RFC guys Reagan who schooled there.  I played as much of a first team as I could given injuries to Fly half Chikoto and Fullback Jimmy J.  We basically smashed the ball down their throats and then they figured out that we were taking the ball on while standing still and they started catching us behind the gain line.  Lots to work on!

I’m looking forward to these counties, not quite sure what will happen, but I think we will be better prepared than we have been.  Sadly, we only have one week before the county tournament and it is the mid-term holiday week.  If the players turn up for training, we may have a chance, if not, likely we won’t win a game in the tournament, there is still a lot to work on.  Waweru, the coach of the team is extremely committed and looks hopeful that we may go far, so I still have hope.  Chibudu has been helping out putting in systems on defence and I hope that will continue as we prepare for the next tournament.  I would like the guys to improve a bit on their rush defence and jackaling as is the fashion these days. 

Odima, the Galana Coach refereed one of our games and later told me that if we played like that, our team would be smashed by his and Garashi.  He somehow has managed to send two teams from the Magarini district tournament, normally only one team is allowed per district.

I would like for the Union to arrange for warm up tournaments before.  There is zero investment in Under 18 rugby in the coast.  There are so many schools without teams, it would be so easy just to give each high school 5 balls and have someone visit them once a week for a month or something, and do the same in primary schools. Then you would have a lot of rugby players and later on rugby fans!  My two shillings!

Big Thanks to George Barbour and the Forty Thieves Bar!

Just a quick note to give a very big thank you to George Barbour and all the people down at Forty Thieves Diani and the South Coast Pirates.  You did a marvellous job as usual hosting a great tournament, very professionally done and a credit to the Club and George (and I imagine David Nolan had a big part to play too!) for hosting such a wonderful international event to showcase on of the most beautiful spots on the Kenyan Coast as well as Kenyan Coast Rugby.

Well done lads!

The boys had a great time, I think they were knocked out at the Cup Quarters which is better than the last time we entered, and congrats to South Coast for winning the whole Cup!

Details here: http://www.dianibeachtouchrugby.co/2015-edition.html

An even bigger thank you as I understand that you sponsored Malindi RFC's entry into the tournament.  This was much appreciated by all and Simba, Ukunda and the rest of the boys were gushing about what great support you provided.  I'm pretty sure everyone at the Club remembers how much you've supported us and I hope to god that one day we'll be able to return the favour to you all!

http://www.dianibeachtouchrugby.co


Cheers Lads!

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g775870-d1998685-Reviews-Forty_Thieves_Beach_Bar_Bistro-Diani_Beach_Ukunda_Coast_Province.html

Malindi RFC cruise to Coast Province Division Semis

Well, it's a nice tittle for a post, but the way we got there was courtesy of a second walk-over win against Pwani University.  Really? You ask, a walk over win in the playoffs? Yes. Even better, Pwani University is a 45 minute drive from Malindi's ground and one better still, the first walkover was on Pwani's own ground.  Yes, we showed up and they only mustered 5 players so we played 10 aside!

The icing on the cake? Well, Malindi enters this semi-final having only played one game in the whole tournament, and the only game we played we won!  It was against South Coast pirates our sister club, who by the way won all of their other games.  So you wonder, how many walkovers are there? Well, I haven't counted the score sheets but a lot.  And it is a real problem.  Enough to say just throw the league out the window.  Really there are only 4 teams that honour any games, South Coast, TUM, Spartans (which essentially is the only club that the union sponsors) and Malindi RFC, which to be fare didn't make it to all of their away games this year.

What's to be done?  Well, I'd propose that the union could go back to what worked.  The travel subsidies!  Why, just have some rugby played is all.  I reckon that if the union put in KES5000 per game (that's like 60 bucks) that is not involving two teams in the same town/city and said two walkovers means your out of the league for a year, they would have no walk overs.

What do you say Tank?

It would mean a lot more guys playing a lot more rugby and in a 7 team format (remove Voi and Kilifi sultans who I don't believe honoured a match) and the whole thing would cost you a whopping 95 thousand shillings.  Guys, seriously, probably equivalent to the five balls you gave all the teams and much more rugby.  What is the priority?

The other thing and I've seen it with Malindi, is after 3 walkovers/postponments in a row, it's hard to get guys to come to the next game and even harder to get them to the pitch to train.  Seriously, the way things are going now is brining everyone down.

The other thing I would do is move the games up to start in late September.  The Uni teams all have to balk on their games starting in Mid november which as it stands now is the heart of the season.  Also, if you put in the two walkovers and you're out rule, and voiced it very clearly at the beginning of the season, people would take it seriously (maybe?).

And now I'm throwing something out there... how about getting your big ticket sponsors to chip in for the small fish clubs? I keep hearing that we should get our own sponsorship, but especially now on the coast, that isn't going to happen anytime soon. Want to grow your game outside of Nairobi?  Want kids to grow up loving rugby so that they'll watch rugby games whose adverts will pay for your world cup team?  Better get cracking guys!

Just saying...

Malindi RFC 32 - Salt City (Gongoni) 10

The Malindi RFC starting 15 (or a bit more!)

Made it back for a friendly against Gongoni last week.   Had a great week training with the boys, we worked a bit on fitness and a bit on getting the ball out wide to score in the corner. Had some issues with some of the younger guys loosing the ball in contact despite Some good forward play. They get a bit excited when they go in and often forget to protect the ball, wanting to get more yards or hit the tackler particularly hard.  Someone somewhere must have taught poor old Nyanje to make contact by hitting the tackler with the ball... which obviously results in a lot of turnover ball.  Nyanje, protect the ball buddy! :)

Anyway, it was a good result for the club who had just come off of an important league win against South Coast Pirates which I believe sees us top of the table.  Unfortunatlye once again, the nationwide league has more walkovers than games played, but hopefully with new management at the KRU, they might be able to give a good think about how to get around this.  I think removing teams that are not travelling, removing a team like Voi which is too hard to reach, and making sure more effort is put into scheduling would be good starts.  Apparently a lot of the University based teams have games scheduled during exams... this is disappointing.

A word about Salt City RFC.  Great club, formed by the commitment of Malindi High and Galana Secondary School boys living around gongoni.  Particularly Colins, a young lad who has put a lot of effort into getting young kids to play.  The club left him a ball to help with training.  Hopefully we can use them as a feeder club, but it would be good if the subsidies could come back, and we could get them into the league on their own.  We could actually have 3 or 4 clubs in the malindi area with a team in Watamu, Guede, Malindi and Gongoni...


Some pics here from the match: Malindi vs Salt City pics