Six things we learnt from Kenya, Uganda rugby clash
1. Ken Moseti is a brilliant and talented footballer…but not as number 10. The diminutive KCB man made a number of carries and line breaks but he was ineffective in game management and ball distribution; core duties of the flyhalf position he was deployed by coach Mitch Ocholla.
He is best used as an inside centre for his explosive pace, bally carrying skills and strong defensive play.
2. Charles Omondi is a beast and flyhalf munching back row but he becomes tamed and defensively timid when played at number 8. The hard tackling back row has pace and superb ball carrying abilities but on Saturday afternoon he was missing as first line of defense during set pieces.
He however remained alert and had presence of mind to pounce on loose balls and scored a try. We need another number 8 in Uganda and Omosh should go back to his marauding self at flanker.
3. We lost a staggering 14 points due to lack of kicker. Full back Essau Otieno missed the first penalty in front of posts and he was quickly relieved of kicking duties. Off colour scrum half Eden Agero took over but he had an astonishing 0% success rate getting 0 points out of possible 11.
The coaches have to examine the squad again and check if they can afford to wish away kickable penalties and conversions.
4. Is Kenya suffering from a dearth of natural hookers or the ones present are not just good enough? George Asin, a late convert from fly-half to hooking (weird transition) was phenomenal with ball in hand and a special mention to that “highlights” offload to winger Alvin Otieno that resulted into a try.
Asin shortcoming were magnified in the lineout where we lost almost 60% of our lineout and we hardly stole any. Granted that the Uganda jumpers were taller than Kenya A’s but if we had proper hooker probably we would have had better throws and better hooker-jumper communication.
5. On the brighter side, the Kenyan game is on the right course. It’s hard to find any national team producing a set of two strong and competitive teams. We had a total of 46 fit, well-conditioned players on international duty. The future looks quite stable for the XV team
6. Is pricing of national matches locking away prospective fans? I had a discussion with my colleague about the Kenya A clash with Uganda and he expressed his reservations with the pricing claiming that it can be hindrance to getting the much desired numbers at the RFUEA Grounds.
The debate centred quantity vis a vis quality. Do we need 500 fans paying 500 bob or 1000 fans paying 300 bob?