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!

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!

New Video for Malindi High Rugby vs Muyeye

Malindi vs Muyeye

Was just playing around with some old game film I had, this was their first game this year... kind of hilarious to watch... you can see how low quality the rugby is!

Look out Driftwood! Here we come!!!!!

Very excited this week as we finish preparation for the Driftwood sevens tournament.  This will be Malindi RFC's first KRU sanctioned event (I learnt last week at the Kabeberi sevens that it is no longer the KRFU!).  Proof: http://www.kenyarfu.com/index.php/competitions/national-sevens-circuit/drift-wood-sevens/429-driftwood-sevens-draw-released-homeboyz-seeded-first :)

So we are training, and the boys are excited.  I mentioned that I made it to Nairobi for the Kabeberi tournament at Mwamba's Railway club.  Well set up, excellent calibre rugby.  I was very happy to finally meet rugby personalities and movers and shakers such as Tank Otieno, Felix Ochieng, Mitch Ochola, Chiro Nyinge, Adelade Nasambu, Thomas Opiyo and countless others.  Unfortunately my phone was stolen right after I met them all so I lost all the pictures and contacts, but hopefully can recoup them next weekend! Thanks all of you for taking the time to chat and share a beer!

I mention this because many of these will be at Driftwood and so am looking forward to showing them what Malindi Rugby is about.  I am a bit worried, we are quite young and obviously will have no players with any experience of competition at this level.  We are playing in the B division and having watched the A division at Kabeberi, I think we might be able to compete.  Don't get me wrong, the top teams (Mwamba, Strathmore, Quins, etc) performed at an extremely high level, perhaps for sevens rugby the top elite level.  But there were some teams that didn't quite have it together.  I do have a couple of players that I'm hoping to showcase, kina Harold Simba and Anthony Kithi (we call him Zeinia) are two players that are relatively well known on the coast.  They have been on coast select teams which travelled to the Safari sevens tournament and I think between the two of them they played in 4 or five KSSSA nationals for fifteens and sevens, so for the coast they are established.  I'm hoping that Mitch and Co will have a good look at them and possibly that the Union might think about helping us invest in developing players here on the north coast.

Looking forward to seeing you all in Mombasa!

Malindi Rugby Development Plan

I have spoken earlier about the Malindi Rugby Development plan.  I have garnered interest from a couple of sponsors in Malindi, but the aim is to start small and get going.  Mine and Waweru’s goal (we welcome anyone who wants to help out!) is to have a team from Malindi win the nationals in the next ten years, and to have 3 players on the national 15s team in the next ten years!  The plan itself has been developed in much more detail with activities and budgets lined out. Happy to hear your comments!

The plan has four prongs which are the following:

Introduce touch rugby to the primary schools, sending ex high school players (club players) to primary schools and giving each school one ball, the player would lead them in "touch" training games to ensure exposure at an early age and ensure that we don't always have to start from scratch when they get to high school.

Increase the number of secondary schools playing rugby in Magarini and Malindi districts, currently there are 7 (two of the ones in Magarini are quite shaky), this would involve some basic training of coaches, a bit of supervision and provision of some equipment.

Development of a “Rugby Accademy” which is essentially a select side taken from the high schools playing rugby.  Any rugby player put forward by his (and yes eventually her) coach who has at least a B would qualify.  We would aim for 30 under 20 players and 30 under 17 players, put them up for a residential 3 week camp, bring in a forwards and a backs coach from up country and give them a 5k scholarship for that term.  The Accademy would take place in three separate sessions during the school holiday period (April, August and December. The two teams would then take part in at least one tour of a rugby playing area at the end of the academy period.

Development of a Rugby club with Senior and Junior Sides. As I mentioned, we have been working hard on this lately but the one stumbling block is the entry into high profile competitions and transport resources.  This year we are aiming to enter (if the KRU allows) the next Chairman's cup (Ezra from St Georges credits this and the transport facilitation for his success this year and urged us to look into it) and the Driftwood 7s and Prinsloo tournaments in the national 7s circuit which is very soon.  

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