Wednesday 25 August 2010

The dust has settled on the Christie Sevens and the action now moves to the Rift Valley town of Nakuru and the Nakuru Athletic Club to be specific. This venue hosts the second leg of the Western Union National Sevens Circuit, the Prinsloo Sevens, a twenty four team event that will be played on Friday and Saturday. Unlike the sixteen team tournaments where the top two teams from each pool make the main cup quarters, the twenty four team Prinsloo Sevens sees the six pool winners and the best two runners up proceeding to the main cup quarters.
Here is a quick preview of the six pools.

Pool A
Kenya Harlequin FC showed a lot of character in rallying from a 0-10 deficit to beat Mwamba RFC 15-10 in the Christie Sevens main cup final. They headline a user friendly Pool A that also includes Daystar University, Bungoma RFC and Mtaa Select.
Day one should be a stroll in the park for “Malaria” Quins who should qualify top of the pool. No disrespect to Daystar, Bungoma and Mtaa Select but any one of these three teams will have to put up the shows of their lives if they are to emerge as one of the best runners up, something that will earn them main cup quarter final action on day two.
Mtaa Select deserves a special mention. This squad was selected at the end of the first Mtaa Sevens tournament held on 15th August at the RFUEA Grounds and as the name suggest, is a composition of players from various Nairobi neighborhoods. The Prinsloo Sevens is a great platform for the Mtaa Select to showcase what it is they are made of.

Pool B
Barring the final ten minutes of their main cup title clash against Kenya Harlequin FC at the Christies, Mwamba RFC were otherwise in imperious form, sweeping all and sundry aside, with relative ease. It was a great Christie Sevens outing for “Kulabu.” The tournament second seeds headline Pool B and barring any mishaps, should make light work of Nondies, Kitale RFC and Egerton University en route to a main cup quarter final berth.

Pool C
Home side Nakuru RFC, Christie Sevens main cup semi finalists are the tournament third seeds and top Pool C. Larry Safari, Bernard Chirchir and Graham Kombo were instrumental in their solid show in Nairobi and will be called upon by their fanatical home crowd to carry the team to Prinsloo Sevens success. The “Wanyore” should easily top the pool that also includes Kenyatta University’s Blak Blad, Rwanda’s Silverbacks and Webuye RFC.

Pool D
Tournament fourth seeds Impala RFC were also main cup semi finalists at the Christies and lead the charge for main cup quarter final honours in this pool. After a lukewarm performance in the 2009 National Sevens Circuit, Impala showed what they can achieve, securing passage to the Christie Sevens main cup quarter finals with a game to spare. There was definitely some impetus gained from that, impetus that they would love to build on as the National Sevens Circuit approaches its business end. We should see them in the main cup quarter final on day two.
Homeboyz RFC stunned Kenya Commercial Bank 19-12 in a pool fixture at the Christie Sevens and were unlucky to drop to the bowl despite registering two wins and one loss on day one. They put their disappointment aside to claim the Christie Sevens Bowl and will be gunning for main cup action on day two. Mombasa and Kenya Polytechnic round up the pool.

Pool E
Defending Prinsloo Sevens Strathmore Leos who also double up as the current National Sevens Circuit champion have been seeded fifth. They won the plate at the Christie Sevens and will be favourites to blast their way out of the pool. Their opponents in the pool will be University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine, KCA University and Mombasa’s Spartans.

Pool F
Kisumu RFC find themselves seeded top of this pool and would fancy their chances of making a second successive main cup quarter final appearance. They gave a pretty good account of themselves during the Christie Sevens, bowing out at the quarter final stage before losing to Strath in the plate final. While they should ideally have it easy against the Eldoret Flames and Mount Kenya University, their clash against big wigs Kenya Commercial Bank RFC will be a true test of their character. The winner of this clash should top the pool and earn direct qualification to the main cup quarters but this is all dependent on the outcome of their other pool matches.
Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology’s team has been placed on standby.