Kiambu lead Central Nationwide rugby league

An Embu RFC player (in green) kicks away the ball from a ruck during their Nationwide Central Region league match against Meru RFC on January 19, 2019 at Meru National Polytechnic grounds. The match ended 13-13. PHOTO | CHARLES WANYORO |

What you need to know:

  • Pace-setters Embu RFC dropped to third a 13-13 with hosts Meru on Saturday at Meru National Polytechnic grounds.
  • Chuka and Murang’a were awarded free points after their opponents, Karatina and Dedan Kimathi universities, respectively, failed to turn up for their duel.
  • JKUAT registered the biggest margin of victory at the weekend, thrashing Thika RFC 59-3 in a one-sided match.

Kiambu RFC beat Zetech University 26-6 in the Kenya Rugby Union Central Nationwide League in an exciting weekend that saw the top five teams switch positions.

Pace-setters Embu RFC dropped to third a 13-13 with hosts Meru on Saturday at Meru National Polytechnic grounds.

Defending champions Mount Kenya University Thika Campus (MKU-Thika) who beat Nanyuki RFC 24-19 at the weekend, also rose to second on 23 points, same as Kiambu but on an inferior scores.

Chuka University are fourth with 18 points after being awarded a walkover after struggling Karatina University from Nyeri County failed to turn up for their match.

Chuka and Murang’a were awarded free points after their opponents, Karatina and Dedan Kimathi universities, respectively, failed to turn up for their duel.

JKUAT registered the biggest margin of victory at the weekend, thrashing Thika RFC 59-3 in a one-sided match.

At Meru National Polytechnic grounds, Embu RFC made a dramatic comeback to rally to a 13-13 draw against bitter rivals Meru RFC in an entertaining match. The visitors had dominated most the first half, playing near Meru’s in-goal area until winger Fred Kamwara received a precise pass and outran the opposition’s backs for about 22 metres to make the try.

Vincent Choya then made a conversion to make to make it 8-0 at half time.

Meru emerged more confident after the break and soon extended the lead to 13-0 through scrum half Daniel Maingi in a goal-line melee, to pile up Embu miseries.

However, a lapse at Meru’s backline gifted Embu after Maxwell Ayanza was left unmarked to dash for a try which was converted by mark Munene to narrow the gap.

Another smooth run from winger Fred Oluoch gifted Embu a try with Mark Munene making a successful conversion for a memorable comeback.

Meru coach Patrick Mwika rued the sloppy defending that costed them the win which would have propelled them to the top of the log.

“I think the game was good though we lost concentration in the final minutes. I think it is because of fatigue since most of our players reported recently from the holidays and have not been in training in the last three weeks,” he said.

Embu coach Benson Mwenda hailed his team for the timely reply blaming the loss on lack of match fitness and fatigue due to the travel.

“It was tough since we had not yet settled having travelled all the way from Embu. We were also expecting a tough match yet many players were not match-fit due to the long holiday. This is the first match in the new year and is a good eye opener,” he said.