KCB, Kabras kick-off Kenya Cup season with wins

Big wigs KCB Rugby and Kabras Sugar opened their Kenyan Cup rugby league campaigns with wins on Saturday.

Champions KCB battled to squeeze a 24-16 victory against Strathmore University Leos at KCB Sports Club while Kabras Sugar blew away Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) 56-0 at Kakamega Showground.

Menengai Oilers also chalked a convincing 39-13 victory against visiting Kenya Harlequin at the Nakuru Athletic club.  

It was a nervy but thrilling exchange of leads as skipper prop Curtis Lilako, substitute Michael Wanjala and wingers, Isaac Njoroge and Geoffrey Okwatch, landed a try apiece to propel the bankers to victory.

But not before flyhalf Shaban Ahmed managed three conversions for the champions.

KCB had to dig deeper, coming from behind twice to beat the Leos, who were ferocious in tackling and defence.

Flanker Barnabas Owuor scored Leos only try that scrum-half Arnold Muita converted beside slotting over a penalty. Fullback Natoka Natoka also curled through two more penalties for the Leos.

KCB landed from a maul through Lilako as Ahmed converted to take the lead 7-0 before Strathmore piled pressure in attack for Owuor to bring the Leos back into the game. Muita's boot leveled at 7-7 before Natoka's penalty put them ahead 10-7.

Lead at HT

Then Njoroge would be raid on the wing from an overlap to find the corner flag as KCB reclaimed the lead 12-10 at the break.

Another beautiful display from the Leos left the bankers committing mistakes to give out two penalties that Natoka slotted over for a 16-12 lead.

The Leos missed a couple of penalties that could have made the big change only for KCB to strike back twice through Okwatch and Wanjala to win.

"I am satisfied with the performance having won the psychological war against KCB. It took some individuals at KCB to break us," said Strathmore Leos coach Louis Kisia.

KCB deputy coach Dennis Mwanja noted that being the first match, one would have expected his side to be rusty. "We had good set-pieces but we were slow at our breakdowns," said Mwanja.

Meanwhile, Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) have announced changes to the Kenya Cup format after Impala Saracens, Mwamba and Nondescripts rejoined the league.

Teams will now meet each other in a one-off play before the playoffs, semi-finals and final.