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! ;)

Malindi High District Champs Again!!!

Malindi High School once again are District Rugby 15s Champions for Malindi District.  The team, which has quite a few returning players, won all three of its games to finish top in the district, not requiring a playoff.  The District sends one team to the Kilifi County Championships this week. Malindi thrashed up and coming rivals Muyeye, led by captain Somalia Abdul “Prince” Thiago 44- 0. Gede, coached by ex Malindi High Captain Harold Simba were also beaten handily 37 – 0 followed by a tough 3-0 against always tough cross-town rivals Barani to keep the clean sheet on the championship, a goal set by the team before the tournament. 

Malindi Rugby Footbal Club worked on leveling the playing field this year, inviting players to all schools to train and play with the club, attractivng  players from as far away as Galana Highschool who will also be competing for the Kilifi County Championship in Mazeras. One of the goals is to ensure that the winner of the Malindi Districts competes at the National Championships. 

Good luck at the Counties boys!

Lots of news! Wild fitness and Barani tournament

Right, well have been quite busy over the last week, helping with organising the music festival, rugby and figuring out what to do next! Lots of news since the last post. First off, we managed to get some support from Wild Fitness from Watamu who managed to drum up 10 000 ksh in sponsorship which we were going to use for balls, but in the end decided on, yes, you guessed it! BOOTS! That will buy us a bit more than three pairs, which might mean we won't have anyone playing in socks at the district championships! Thanks Tara!!!

Secondly, we participated as expected in the Barani Tournament, we had quite a few injuries so had to play some of the smaller and less experienced players. The skill level was significantly lower than Shanzu and the pitch was tiny, with 2 metre try zones with casuarina trees growing in them! A major bonus was being introduced to Twaha who is the rugby development official for the coast. Hope if things get rolling that we can work on something together to get rugby properly up and running in Malindi. He seemed like a great guy with a good knowledge and love for the game!

We had a tough first game against a much bigger and very low skilled Muyeye side. All accounts a very rough/dirty game which we came away with a 5-0 win, but injuries to our top three players. The next game was the worst I've seen our boys play, a 15-0 loss to Barani. Lots of panicking and turn overs galore, I was surprised and thought we'd taken a few steps back from the level we were at in Shanzu where we were destroying the cream of the crop. I think that the team got away from our strength (protecting the ball) in search of more space and creativity, but I guess it was a bit too creative. The last game against St Georges who we expected to be our biggest challenge was more of the same. Granted we only had 4 sets of boots on the pitch and lots of injuries, but again lots of turn overs and a 15-0 loss.

Not what I was expecting but I suppose it's better to get the kinks out here than at the districts or provincials. Back to the drawing board. Going to work on fitness and ball control this week. The boys were off for mid-term holidays, so a well deserved week off. Next week is the districts so we have our work cut out for us. Hope it will go well! Looking forward to getting some comments! Cheers, J