Bring back our rugby
That the season-ending Enterprise Cup tournament, which should have been the climax of the local rugby season, ended up being a low-key event behoves stakeholders to make the sport great again.
The tournament, which traditionally brings the curtain down on the Kenya Cup season, ended on Saturday with Kenya Cup champions Kabras Sugar Rugby Club playing KCB Rugby in the final. In beating KCB 30-27 in the thriller at RFUEA Grounds, Nairobi, to retain the cup, Kabras completed a season’s double. But it is not lost in fans that the early stages were characterised by low fan attendance and no-shows by teams.
The Enterprise Cup was envisaged to be a regional tournament drawing top clubs from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania but it has since been reduced to a Kenyan affair. That can be blamed on lack of sponsorship for the tournament and the crippling financial problems local clubs face, making them unable to honour matches. This year’s tournament was characterised by walk-overs as teams failed to raise money to pay players or travel to match venues.
The situation is the same in the Kenya Cup, which also has no sponsor. Cash-strapped teams like Homeboyz initially withdrew from the competition before making a comeback.
It’s time Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) rethought the running of local tournaments and made local leagues vibrant and better.
There should be an overhaul of local competitions. It will take KRU’s new leadership more than a patch-up job to bring sponsors back to the sport and also revitalise it.
The success of Kabras Sugar and KCB, clubs that have dominated the local rugby in the past decade, is an indicator of what teams can achieve with proper investment in the sport.
