Poor performance at Provincials

After all the hype, it appears that a series of mental breakdowns caused Malindi High to Choke their way out of the National Championships.  The team must have been the clear favourites to become champions after two relatively decisive victories over last year's champions and County rivals St Georges in the County Championships.

The team however performed miserably, losing all three of its round robin games against lesser competition.

Results:
5-12 Kenyata
0-7 Khamisi
0-26 Shimba

The icing on the cake was that St George's won the competition.  They were awarded a spot in the competition despite being taken out by Malindi on the basis that they were the defending champions. Good luck to them and Coach Ezra in the National tournament!  The runner's up Shimba Hills will also be attending the nationals since the Nationals this year will be held at the coast, the home region apparently receives an extra spot in the tournament.  Good luck to them as well and to coach Nils Achayo, who I understand switched from perennial favourites Shimo la Tewa to Shimba Hills because of discipline issues at the former.

Malindi High will now focus on the upcoming District 7s tournament. Surely mental preparation will be a large part of their training regimen.

Malindi are Kilifi County Champions for 15s!

Big congrats to Waweru and the whole Malindi Rugby Community.  Looks like we made it.  Last year, St Georges looked like unbeatable opposition, and the boys gathered all of their courage, focus and discipline and worked hard on upping their game all year last year.  We strolled through the Districts as expected with some stiff competition from Barani, and now, it seems like we've taken down the cyclops!  We beat St Georges twice in the tournament, once in the opening stages 10-7 and once in the final 6-0!!!

Great work boys!!!  Today, the semi-finals didn't go all Malindi RFC's way, while Malindi thrashed Lutsa'ni 31-0, St Georges did beat Galana 15-3, dashing the hopes of an all Malindi RFC final.  Malindi high stepped up, and won the final with a pair of drop kicks scored through the deft kicking of Stephen Biko.

This feels a bit like winning the Coast Championship for Malindi, as St Georges won all the games last year against Malindi in both 15s and 7s.  But Malindi High's boys must step up and stay focussed as there are sure to be strong challenges ahead in the form of Shimo la Tewa coached by Achayo as well as the perennially strong Taita teams and let's not forget Kwale and the All Blacks from Waa. The provincials will be held on the 25th at Shimo la Tewa and Shanzu.  The nationals are at the Coast this year as well...

Hopefully with our pedigree this year, we might win a couple more games at the Nationals if we make it! ;)