Kenya Rugby is now at the peak of its powers

Kenya’s momentous victory over Zimbabwe in the 2013 Africa cup final is easily the greatest achievement by a Kenyan team in the 15-a-side game.

It was not just the fact that Kenya won the Africa cup, after all they did win the Africa cup in 2011. It was the manner in which they destroyed both Uganda and Zimbabwe with scores of 52-11 and 29-17 respectively.

Prior to the game, Zimbabwe fans were eager for a measure of revenge. Remember that Kenya had wiped the floor with Zimbabwe at the 2013 Rugby sevens world cup less than 3 weeks earlier. But it was not to be as Kenya dominated all facets of the game except for during a few moments at the beginning of the second half.

History

In 1987, Kenya hosted the 4th All Africa games during which they came up against Zimbabwe who thoroughly dominated the game on their way to a 44-12 win. Two years later, Zimbabwe yet again destroyed Kenya 56-9 in Nairobi. To Kenya fans of that era, it seemed unthinkable that Kenya would some day catch up with Zim.

And even this generation of fans will clearly remember how Zimbabwe beat Kenya both home and away in 2011 to win the Victoria cup.

Excellent Facilities in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is centuries ahead of Kenya in terms of rugby facilities. In 2010, then Kenya coach Michael “Tank” Otieno noted the superb facilities existent at Zimbabwean schools such as Prince Edward school. “In Kenya you would not have a high school with such good facilities, that was a good venue to train at”, Otieno said after his side had trained at Prince Edward school. So good are the facilities at schools that not even the top Kenyan clubs like Harlequins have anything close to that.

Yet despite all this, Kenya still finds itself atop the rugby pyramid of Africa. How good would Kenya be with better facilities ? Its something for KRFU to think about.

 There is better youth development in Zim

Zimbabwe has always had a better youth development program. Their youth sides have been African champions multiple times and have gone to the IRB Junior World cup several times.

In addition, the Zimbabwe U18 side is a permanent fixture at the Craven week, which is the most famous national youth rugby tournament and brings together the best youth rugby teams in South Africa.

The fact that Kenya could still beat Zimbabwe despite virtually non-existent youth development speaks to the potential present in Kenya.

Credit to KRFU

15-a-side rugby has often been a poor relation to the 7-a-side game in Kenya. When Mwangi Muthee became KRFU chairman he promised to give the 15-a-side game its fair due. He has done just that. Indeed Muthee’s hands on approach has been a breath of fresh air.

When Muthee promised to aim for the 2015 World cup, many fans including myself dismissed as the usual empty promises made by Kenyan sports officials. He could very well prove us doubting Thomases wrong.

Kenya are now tops in Africa

Though Kenya won the Africa cup in 2011, that win was watered down by the fact that only two teams participated and Kenya were the hosts and thus heavily favoured to win.

In 2013, the tournament was played in Madagascar which previously was not a good hunting ground for Kenya. But they put both Uganda and Zim to the sword to win the cup.

In both the 7-a-side game and the 15-a-side game, Kenya are now tops in Africa north of the Limpopo.

Its fair to say that in 2013, Kenya rugby  is now at the peak of its powers. The players, the technical bench and the Union deserve to be showered with praise not only for a stellar display but also for uniting a bitterly divided country even if briefly. Jerome Paarwaters especially deserves three cheers for taking Kenya to never before seen heights. This pretty much settles the local versus foreign coach debate as we have seen the dramatic improvements that come about with coaches like Paarwater, Mike Friday, Zdravko Logarusic and even Luc Eymael.

Kenya to host the 2014 event

Perhaps the most important outcome of the win for Kenya is that they now have the right to host the 2014 event which will be used to decide who represents Africa at the 2015 Rugby World cup.

Should Kenya host this event, KRFU absolutely must host the games at the RFUEA grouunds where the proximity of the fans to the field gives Kenya immense vocal support unlike Kasarani which is so big and where the fans are so far from the field that it sounds like an echo chamber.

Don’t Take the foot off the pedal

Having praised the players , the union and the technical staff, its important for them not to forget what got them to this point. Its also important to keep in mind that with even more improvements, Kenya could catch up with the likes of Uruguay and could crack the top 25 in the IRB rankings whereupin Kenya could qualify for more IRB funding.