Cougars, Mean Machine look to roar in Kenya Varsity League
Students of various universities pose for photoswith kits of various teams that will feature in the Kenya Varsity League at the UoN's Taifa Hall on October 6, 2022.
What you need to know:
- The matches are being held every Saturday at different universities across the country.
- The women’s event will start on November 26.
Hosts Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology’s Cougars will on Saturday be seeking to maintain their perfect start in the Kenya Varsity League with another resounding victory, this time against Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (Dekut) in a Group “B” fixture.
Four matches will be played in the second round of matches of the revamped rugby 15s competition involving local universities.
The opening match on Saturday will be from Group “C” where Kabarak University will clash with Meru University starting at 9am.
The pool’s other match, pitting University of Nairobi’s Mean Machine against Technical University of Mombasa (Tum) will follow from 11am.
Egerton University will then take on Kenya College of Accountancy (KCA) in a Group “B” tie kicking off at 1pm before experienced Jkuat’s Cougars confront visiting Dekut.
The Kenya University Sports Federation (Kusf) has contracted Kuza Kizazi – a local talent management agency to run the competition for 10 years.
Sixteen teams are featuring in the men’s tournament while the women’s event has attracted four teams.
The matches are being held every Saturday at different universities across the country.
The women’s event will start on November 26.
Initially, Meru University were supposed to host the round two matches but the poor state of their pitch forced organisers to move the games to Jkuat.
The Juja-based university hosted round one matches last weekend.
Jkuat’s captain Davies Masinga said their 58-3 win over KCA got them well warmed up and they are looking to build a dangerous momentum.
He said though a match can always go either way, they have a better squad and are thus sure of a win.
“It (Dekut) is a good side but we are better than them. We will take the match to them and we are sure of winning,” said Masinga.
He heaped praise on the young blood in their squad saying they performed well against KCA. Jkuat’s forward Houston Omondi was crowned the man of the match.
Masinga said that apart from lifting the title, their other goal is to use the competition to build the team. Jkuat were relegated from the Kenya Rugby Union Championships to the Nationwide League in 2019. Dekut lost their round one match 45-6 to Egerton University.
Mean Machine captained by Zack Ondijo will also be seeking to make it to two wins in a row as they face Tum. Machine thrashed University of Eldoret 48-0 last weekend.
Fixtures (all matches at Jkuat)
Kabarak v Meru 9am
UoN v Tum 11am
Egerton v KCA 1pm
Jkuat v Dekut 3pm