Malindi RFC Background

Malindi RFC Starting 15 at Friendly Match Ukunda Show Grounds Vs South Coast Pirates

Malindi RFC was put together in early 2013 in order to give school players who have graduated a chance to compete at the next level and to give the up and coming younger school players a chance to see more advanced rugby and provide them with older role models in an attempt to solidify the growth of a rugby culture in Malindi. It is coached by James Terjanian and Nicolas Waweru, with some assistance from Odima and support from Twaha and is lead by Captain Harold Simba and Anthony Kithi. 

The team consists of players mainly from Malindi High, Barani and Galana Secondary school with some participation from Muyeye.  Malindi High has represented the coast in the National KSSSA championships on 4 occasions in the last 5 years and is now gearing up to improve its record in those championships.

The team trains and plays at Malindi High School in Ngala estate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 4:30 PM and welcomes any Rugby player residing in Malindi or Magarini Districts.  We think that there might be rugby players form upcountry that would be interested in playing but might not know about us, so any publicity to that effect would be great.  

Malindi RFC does not have solid financial backing yet, but has received some financial support to attend the Diani Beach Rugby tournament in July from Amani Riviera, a group hoping to promote tourism on the Coast to non Italians the remaining funding comes from local rugby enthusiast James Terjanian and in kind contributions from Malindi High. Malindi RFC has a development plan it is seeking sponsors for which includes introducing touch rugby to primary schools, Improving secondary school participation in Rugby, the development of a Rugby Academy in Malindi and the participation of Malindi RFC in high level National Competitions. 

Malindi High at the National Championships in Nakuru

Well, it's the same old story!  As good as it is for us to have the national exposure, we were crushed at the Nationals.  The first game against (granted Perennial National Favourites) Kakamega resulted in an almost incredible 60 - 0 score line, that's almost a try a minute pace...

The boys had been buoyed by their two wins last year against Alliance and Shimo la Tewa (I think in the shield) and had aimed to have at least two wins in the group to try to advance to the quarters. but this was not to be this year. That game took all of the steam out of the boys and the rest of the tournament proved tough to motivate them.  There has been a lot of talk about Kakamega fielding older players than regulations, I don't know if that is the case, but I hope someone looks into it.  In the mean time, it's just fuel for us to work harder! This again is the main thing we need to work on with them from now on, mental toughness. Other scores were a close 15-10 loss to Moi, 29-0 loss to Alliance and then a 7 - 0 loss to Kibiricho in the bowl.  St Georges beat St Mary's Yala and made it to the Quarters.  Good on them!  I suppose our goal next year has to be to beat Georges!!!

Regional (Provincial) Success for Malindi H again...

I Haven't updated this post in a while poleni!  So just wanted to document the continued success of the Malindi High team!  Congratulations to the Boys once again, they were not (regional) provincial champions but lost in the final (to guess who? St Georges) which gave them the right to represent the coast in the National Championships in Nakuru.  Perhaps I had been to hard on the boys.  It turned out that St Georges was in deed the best team on the Coast, and although I don't like that we were second best, I do feel that Georges was over aged and that they had an unfair advantage.  They have a club team at their disposal (Shephards) which allows their boys to travel and have access to higher level competition.  We're working on getting that for our boys here.  We're lucky only that we were not on their side of the table!

At any rate, as promised, after the counties, I switched my focus to the younger boys, only acting as a distant advisor to Waweru prior to the Regionals. I have also had long discussions with Waweru about discipline and the need to make sure we focus on having our players develop strong character and moral values rather than sacrifice to win, and I am now satisfied that he is on board with that.  I think by withdrawing myself, I sent a clear message to the boys which they understood.

I'm sure it will happen again, if I've learnt one thing with this project is that you have to be patient, deliberate, loyal and just be determined and eventually success comes. Actually we've had a lot.  Our long term goal is to WIN THE NATIONALS in ten years and to have three players representing Kenya within that timeframe.

Seasons changing!

I just got back from another extended stay in Djibouti to do my usual stint, coaching the club for the rugby season with Waweru. Last summer I managed to train a bit with some of the boys in July in August while I was here, and it was great, but due to the teachers strike in September, our plan for a tournament up country was foiled!

This year presented us with a new major challenge.  It seems the Kenya secondary schools sports association (KSSSA) has decided to change the schedules around, moving 15s rugby to the first term and 7s to the second.  This poses three major problems for us.  

First of all, fifteens is quite a complex game, and this means that our district championships are this week, just over a month after the students report to school.  It really doesn't allow for us to prepare the boys technically sufficiently for the tournament.  I'm not sure how it works in other parts of the country, but at Malindi High, where the intake comes from mainly rural areas, some of the kids tend to report late. For one, the form ones only started reporting this week.  Uninformed rugby players are dangerous rugby players.  This increases the risk of injury.  On some level, having the 7s before the 15s championship worked because the rules are a lot simpler and you could get away with managing fewer players at the beginning and the others could catch up while watching the senior players play.  The situation has been made worse now by the addition of an extra tier to the championships.  I suppose as a result of the constitution, we now have to compete in the "County" Championships after winning (Munguakipenda) the districts, then we move to the provincials and the nationals.  In past years we tended to play the 7s districts in early - mid March and then played the provincials end of March. Now we are having to play our first and seminal 15s tournament in mid February!

Secondly and most importantly, the boys can not possibly be physically prepared for the games in time with this new schedule.  Rugby is a very physically demanding sport, and is physical preparation is vitally important, without sufficient preparation, you risk serious injury.  My biggest nightmare is not my team, which is made up of students that luckily I've had the honour of coaching over the last years and have had good habits instilled in them, but the other teams, who being slightly less organized, will probably have had a couple of weeks to bring the form fours up to speed.  Physically unprepared players are dangerous to themselves and to the opponents they face, and I am sincerely worried for my players this week.

Finally, I really don't understand the logic in  playing rugby during this time of year in Kenya!!  It is the hottest and driest, and the most likely to cause injury.  Rugby (except maybe in north america which has arguably the worst rugby in the world) is usually played during the coolest and wettest periods.  When you play in full summer, the quality of the pitch deteriorates (in this part of kenya it tends to be sand and thorns!), the risk of dehydration increases and the risk of serious injury, especially concussions is multiplied. For this reason alone, I would urge the KSSSA and anyone vaguely concerned for the well being of young rugby players in Kenya to push the 15s tournaments to May-June-July, the wettest and coolest months throughout Kenya.  Ideally, the Nationals could be played at the end of July, with the provincials mid July and the Districts and County tournaments being held in June.  This would give much more time for the players to prepare, and have them playing in the period when it is safest to play rugby.  High school rugby is already plagued in Kenya by lack of equipment, many teams we meet don't have proper equipment, regularly players play (as often documented in my blog) without boots, certainly without mouth guards (I don't believe I've ever seen one on the coast) and often with trees growing in the pitch and dangerous fences in the end zone. I see no need to further put players health at risk by having them play unprepared during the most physically challenging season.

I sincerely hope that we manage to change this, as I believe strongly as educators and coaches, that the students wellbeing should be our formost concern.  I would appreciate assistance in lobbying for this, so please contact me through the blog if you can assist!

Cheers,
j