Prinsloo, christie and safaricom sevens

What a nice time it has been, a month of fun and rugby action. Let's just say i can finally get to rest and start meditating on the fifteens season just around the corner. Immediately after closing for holidays, prinsloo sevens came swiftly in nakuru popularly called nax vegas and there was no way i was going to miss out. It was a great weekend chilling out with friends and socializing with new people. Nakuru is known for its bustling nightlife, nice hotels and of course beautiful girls. I love the passion the people have for rugby, the wanyore being the nickname of Nakuru rfc receive massive loyal support from the people. I only wish the tournament could'nt have ended, it was pure bliss. I got back home but again prepared for the christie sevens which was to commence the following weekend. The weather almost ruined it on saturday. We woke up to a chilly weather with very soggy grounds. It's not the best of things  playing on a water ladden pitch with all the mud but rugby is always fun. My school team put up an impressive perfomance and came in as runners up after a heated brawl with Daytar falcons. It was the most remarkable perfomance in the entire circuit. Each player got a medal and a cup to take back to campus. It means the lads will play in division one with the top tier teams. And that is a task which requires lots of agility and brain power i can only imagine how demanding it will be. Now when Christie had ended everyone began contemplating safaricom sevens. It's by far the biggest rugby sevens tournament in Africa and always attracts top union teams and professional clubs globally. The safaricom sevens has grown steadily over the years. It was initially hosted at the RFUEA grounds along Ngong Road but was shifted to Nyayo Stadium because of the ever growing fanbase which had expanded tremendously. Safaricom then resort to hosting the tourney at Kasarani stadium which is quite expansive and is just a few minutes from town, thanks to the more than eight lane Thika superhighway. Kenya hopes to be incorporated in the irb series list of hosts and has already presented her interest to the board to atleast host an event in the circuit. Kenya will have to prove her prowess based on the succes of Safaricom sevens.It should be noted that many factors come into play for a country to host an event. Some of the factors should be good facilities which include, world class stadium with reasonable capacity, the transport system should be very efficient, there should be good accomodation too. There should be a sponsor even though U.S. events lack sponsors at times but Kenya is an emerging market so theres need of a sponsor to fund the event. There should be a reasonable fanbase in order to attract revenue which goes to the board. I can comfortably insinuate that Kenya is almost close to achieving the threshold. A good rugby stadium is all it takes to convince the board and I believe sooner or later we'll bring the game home.This year the tournament was bigger and better attracting over nineteen foreign teams among them the Argentina national team, Welsh warriors and Western province. Security was beefed up following the Westgate terror attacks which coincided with the last year edition. The games were played harmoniously but the Kenyans were particularly an unhappy lot because they lost their crown to the Welsh Warriors which had accomplished players, most of which play for Wales in the IRB series. The senior Kenyan players had unresolved differences with the union over contract related issues. The teams assembled perfomed dismally. Shujaa which was considered the mainstream team managed to win the plate, in layman's jargon they finished in fifth position. The other Kenyan teams Morans and Simba saba did not win any accolade and some critics are questioning whether it was in the interest of Kenyans to strip down the team. Some are  quite skeptical regarding the team's future in the coming leg of sevens. Kenya has firmly remained among the irb core teams and it appears as though things will take a turn for the worse if disputes are not resolved in time. Well, in my opinion it was a noble idea to nurture a new generation of players and maintain the team's good perfomance but a complete overhaul is not the best of options. It is now clear that Kenya will have to go without the services of rugby maestro Collins Injera who is infact the third leading all time try scorer, Horace Otieno, Billy Odhiambo among others. We hope the the players and the union will solve their differences amicably. All the best team Kenya, success!