Bwake confident of retaining national secondary schools rugby 7s title next week

Reigning National Secondary Schools rugby Sevens champions Friends School Bwake are confident of retaining their title when Term Two games get underway in Kakamega County next week.

The school’s director of rugby, Ben Amboko, said: “Our focus is to retain our title. We are aware it will be very competitive, but we have prepared adequately.”

Rugby will be played at the Bull Ring in Kakamega town. Bwake have been handed a relatively easy Pool A, where they will battle it out with regular campaigners Kitondo School from Eastern, Nairobi School, and Eastern’s Marsabit Mixed. Pool B will feature Bungoma High, Laiser Hill  (Rift Valley), Musingu (Musingu) and Gede.

Nyanza region champions St Mary’s School Yala headlines Pool C, which also has Lenana School, M-Pesa Foundation, and Bishop Baldachino.

Nyanza’s other representatives, Friends School Anjego, Western region's giants St Peter’s Mumias, and Alliance are in Pool D, which has been dubbed the ‘pool of death’.

Anjego’s coach and principal, J.J. Masime, is confident that his charges will qualify for the quarters from the group. “My boys have gained experience and are ready to face any team at the national level. They have played together for the last four years. I will be happy if they crown it by lifting the national trophy,” said Masime.

Masime previously guided Machakos School, Maseno School, and Nduru Boys to the national championships. He twice won the national title with Maseno School. He said his target is to guide the team to the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools games to be held in Kakamega next month.

“We have worked on the weaknesses we identified at the regionals, especially tackles and options. I believe they will play much better at the nationals,” added Masime.

Yala coach George Kerima said they are eyeing their inaugural National Sevens title. Yala previously won the national 15's trophy. “The boys have come of age. I believe this is our time to lift the national title. This is one of the best 7s teams Yala has produced,” said Kerima.

“The recently concluded regional games were tough and tested the boys. We played a very tough Otieno Oyoo team in the semis and won 7-5 before playing Anjego in the final. We expect even tougher games at the nationals but we are ready to face any team,” said a confident Kerima.