I’m going to do it. I’m going to open the floodgates of wrath and hot blood that this topic of schools rugby in Kenya generates. You know who you are, and I’m telling you to put your best foot forward now and tell me why your school is the “best” rugby school in the country.
There are a couple schools that have to be mentioned right off the bat. St. Marys, Lenana (Duke of York), Rift Valley Academy, and Nairobi School (Prince of Wales) are the big name schools that have a long history of the sport in Kenya. However, there have been some strong “newcomers” over the years that deserve mention, namely some janjaweeed-type maniacs from Njoro High school in the early 90’s (yani, those guys had NO fear, as Saints and Lenana found out at Blackrock 1992). How about Hillcrest or Mangu?
Now, because I’m a Rift guy, I nominate Rift Valley Academy, my alma mater. RVA had a record 10 straight Prescott Cup championships from 1980 and 1990. In the following 4 years we finished as champion one more time and lost in the championship game on the other 3 – so we were in the running. I don’t even know what happened prior to 1980, so someone help me out here. Even just listing the 80’s and 90’s, that’s remarkable. You know if you played rugby in Kenya during that time that you feared the Buffalo.
RVA rugby started in 1963. Our first match was at Kijabe Primary School’s pitch against St. Mary’s. We won 24-13. So, though RVA was not the first school to have Rugby in Kenya, it has a great history and pedigree within the very top ranks of Kenyan schools.
Quite obviously, I’m prejudiced. But, because I’m fair I will give you a chance to voice your reasons for inclusion. So, name your school, it’s pedigree, and the reasons it should be listed in the Kenya Schools Rugby “hall of fame”.
February 20, 2006 at 1:52 pm
Ya’ll are lucky my school didnt go all the way up but we finished at 15 years. Otherwise you would have tasted fury like no other at our hands, believe 🙂
As for the new kids on the block: kakamega High are making inroads and St. Mary’s Yala were the first team in Kenyan rugby history (as far as I can remember) to score 100+ points over an opponent in one game at national level.
February 20, 2006 at 5:50 pm
You have to give it up for Kakamega High. I played for ‘Kakamega in 86 and 87. We were actually a pretty decent team considering that we didn’t have much of a history and we had to start from scratch.
My man Vitisia was a team mate then and is now the headcoad…
February 21, 2006 at 10:13 am
Gekuro beat you to it!
February 21, 2006 at 10:34 am
Steve, Gekuro did beat me to the punch on this one. I sat on it over the weekend, trying to decide if I really wanted to publish it.
Hesitation kills.
February 21, 2006 at 6:36 pm
i dont even know where to beging but hear are my reasons.
-first rugby playing school in kenya-1929/30
-most appearances at semi finals all time
-produced the most number of national team players ever
-best home raised players unlike saints who recruited players from patch anf changes after 4th form to playing in 5 and 6th form(ps name for me one saints team ever in the 90,s that didnt have a patcherian or changerian)
-most sevens wins ever
-most wins so far since schools floodlights began
-most appearances at nationals
-only school to have produced 2 of kenyas only 3 rugby professionals to play in europe.
– and just because i dont want to embarass keguro and all the other maasais ill stop
February 21, 2006 at 8:10 pm
Joe, I assume you’re making the case for Nairobi School (Patch), and it’s a very strong case.
February 22, 2006 at 4:42 am
you see hash i didnt even have to say which school….. but you knew it a patchiii yeee! . i was blind but now i can see;; that patch machine is the one for meeeee:;;; and i forgot to add
best rugby playing field(twikenham) in kenya. tallest posts in sub sahara outside south africa designed by Sir Herbert Baker himeslf
February 22, 2006 at 6:58 am
Joe, now touting your history is one thing. Claiming you have the best field is another. RVA’s field is not only scenic and well done, it’s level as well. Something that patch can’t really claim…
Also, you know how bad people hate playing at RVA because of the altitude. You had better score well in the first half, because we own the second half -that time when you’re grasping your shorts praying that your next breath has just a little bit more oxygen in it.
February 22, 2006 at 8:10 am
No Rosslyn Academy?
ok, ok, we sucked at Rugby. But I don’t expect you to be bringing up our ability to defeat RVA in basketball on a regular basis.
February 22, 2006 at 8:36 am
David, do you really want to go there? So we lost one game each year, and it was to Rosslyn. We won’t mention that we won 4 out of 5 games each of those years too.
Now, having said that, I know that the Rosslyn basketball teams are really good right now. Thanks in no small part to John Leonard’s coaching.
On a rugby note, I was back watching Rosslyn play a rugby game about 2 years ago. They made ALL of the players where skull caps, like helmets in a football game. The headmaster stood there with a straight face telling me how much safer it was. I was embarrassed for the kids.
February 22, 2006 at 11:15 am
Hush do you reall want to go there with the field . yes kijabe has high altitude yes your field is well manicuredbut samba park/twikenham is the field of dreams.(apart from the decline experienced in laters years ) i still insist that twikenham is the greatest pitch ever .
bigger than quins grounds
flatter than mean machines,
softer than maroon grounds,
holier than RVAs clouds
February 22, 2006 at 12:53 pm
“holier than RVA’s clouds” – I love it! Joe, I can tell you’re someone I’ll be dialoguing a lot with.
February 22, 2006 at 2:52 pm
You may keep whatever pride you may have. My junior year, with Heath up front we had our best chance to destroy you guys AT RVA but because I got a detention I was prohibited from playing in that game. We defeated you guys later that year at Rosslyn, but I played that time. A _huge_ difference… (chuckling at myself now).
My senior year, with the entire RVA tournament on the line, Swai hits the luckiest buzzer beater (bank shot from half court double clutch?!! WTF!) of his life (you guys were down two points) and you guys win. I’ll relive that moment over and over for the rest of my life. We defeated you guys at Rosslyn that year as well.
February 22, 2006 at 3:49 pm
ati best rugby playing field, ati twickenham .. manze there was time my uncles church refused to hold a convention at patch because the pitch was bogus. Twickenham kitu gani. The best pitches were in the highlands, and the proper highlands, not outer nairobi like RVA!
i cant believe that someone could mention Rosslyn Academy with a straight face here. Rosslyn??? sheesh!
February 22, 2006 at 4:02 pm
David, I have the video clip of Swai’s shot if you ever want it for your library… 🙂
Mental, come on now, ati RVA is now outer Nai? Just because you can drive there now in an hour doesn’t mean it isn’t it’s own world. Okay, I’ll give you pseudo-highlands, and the fact that there are some great fields upcountry as well, but I won’t be roped into accepting RVA being pigeon-holed as an Nairobi school.
We played everyone (rugby, basketball, football/soccer) from St. Pats in Iten to Nyeri Baptist, to Mombasa, to Nakuru, Menengai, Cardinal Otunga, you get the idea. We went to Nationals until 1989 in all sports, until the officials told us we were no longer wanted. No, RVA is broader than just Nairobi.
February 22, 2006 at 5:44 pm
my dear mental let me clarify patch is such an expansive school, the rugby pitch is so honour never has there been a tent pitched on its grounds . judging from your post i can tell you have never been to patch otherwise you will jua that patch as a total of 6 rugby pitches for the six snr houses, a cricket pitch three soccer pitches an athletic field 3 hockey pitches so rest as well as a small field of grass upschool for chewing rabbles so rest assured only the atheletics fieldand cricket grounds are iopen to wedding and if you areally have pull and connections the quad is available(please refer to the movie out of africa before you come here posting fiction rather than fact (…lol i feel like am in high school again alll rowdy while replying mental hehehe dont hate appriciate)
February 22, 2006 at 5:48 pm
7 rugby fields why would we offere your uncle twikenham. if kenya was in the middle east the burning bush(holy ground) would be samba/twikenham and where is keguro we talk about those clay courts changes call ruge pitches lol haha wink wink
February 24, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Dear Joe:
That you had to memorize and recount all your schools’ rugby accomplishments speaks for itself.
At Lenana, we just played well and lived well. Unlike some schools, we have never needed to memorize our past glories, much like Njenga Karume touting his virility.
Winners rarely need to brag. They are too busy winning.
February 26, 2006 at 12:02 pm
AH mang’u eeeee….ah mang’u aaaaaaaaaa-wazimba 4life! nuff said
February 26, 2006 at 5:54 pm
apparently keguro you underestimated karumes virility but we seem to have acquired some rugby viagra after soso performances in the 90 please refere to to todays nation
http://www.nationmedia.com
Incidents
None of the defending champions climbed the podium. Kenya Commercial Bank finished third while Lenana played second fiddle to Nairobi School.
February 27, 2006 at 12:51 am
Those boys from Kakamega — I remember a Blackrock tournament where were it not for a dubious referee they would have CREAMED Saint Mary and it’s fossils ….
February 27, 2006 at 3:13 am
In following with where White African left, RVA were like invincible and a whole generation knew that they could not be beaten, that is until the Saints came marching in and totally dominated the 90’s rugby scene, but I must say the western and Nyanza schools have taken high school rugby a notch higher an credit goes to them. I still think HIgh school rugby is the best quality rugby you can watch in Kenya
February 27, 2006 at 3:45 pm
maseno – maseno was the original upcountry killers.
February 27, 2006 at 5:48 pm
obs i hate to look like i am dominating this post but i must interget. saints dominated the 90’s because moi introduced 844. so patcherians /changerians /manguaring/strath guys malizaed school and went to saints. playing for saints. what do you expect when i have to play with a guy who played in prescott when i was still in std six .it is only recently with the demise of saint marys as a jisty school that changerian and patcherians are going to other schools that saints rugby has falled in the past 6 years saints has failed to reach any prescott final which are now completely dominated by patch cchangez and bush . so your 10 years dominance with old men who should have been playing at club level is no and void i think the whole country agrees that saints rugby is rubbish.playing with old boys of other schools and fixed officiating by caffrey does not translate to good rugby . like your most famous rugby player herbert mwachiro you do better on the sidelines giving advice
February 27, 2006 at 5:53 pm
obs i hate to look like i am dominating this post but i must interject. saints dominated the 90’s because moi introduced 844. so patcherians /changerians /manguaring/strath guys malizaed school and went to saints to play for saints. what do you expect when i have to play with a guy who played in prescott when i was still in std six .it is only recently with the demise of saint marys as a jisty school that changerian and patcherians are going to other schools that saints rugby has fallen. in the past 6 years saints has failed to reach any prescott final which are now completely dominated by patch changez and bush . so your 10 years dominance with old men who should have been playing at club level is null and void i think the whole country agrees that saints rugby to put it simply is rubbish.(playing with old boys of other schools and fixed officiating by caffrey does not translate to good rugby) . like your most famous rugby player herbert mwachiro you do better on the sidelines giving advice.
February 28, 2006 at 9:38 am
me im saying laser hill because they had they best field with thorn tree to line the sides and the best grass that cut your knees when you fell haaaaaddd on the ground, and the best heads for hed butting and the most injuries too…
March 5, 2006 at 8:30 am
Saint Mary’s … tosha
March 11, 2006 at 4:24 am
Rift Valley Academy. Their brass band wiped out Patch brass band in ’53, thats all I know ’bout them, apart from they were a bunch of yank missionaries kids, living an alien life to us Brit colonials.. Rugby was too rough for me, played some hockey for house 3rd team, that is anybody left over after they had selected teams one and two.
March 13, 2006 at 12:02 am
No way I never heard about Swai’s buzzer beater, send me the video if you can.
Awesome website Hash!!!! Will have to chat more soon,
Congrats on your new baby!!
Seeya,
Aus
March 21, 2006 at 7:02 am
How dare you have a discussion on school’s rugby without mentioning Lenana (prominently). Even RVA “knows” (rather painfully) who Lenana are.
Just to give an example about the 80s you are talking about. In 1982 Lenana won the Prescott Cup UNBEATEN. Somebody should get that magic team together again sometime. The unbeaten record was retained even after a bruising friendly game with a strong Nondies II. It really came as no surprise when the 1984 Kenyan team boasted of at least 4 names from the Lenana ’82 side and 13 former changearians in all. To name the four, Nesbitt Wesonga (captain of the ’82 side and the scrum half), Jim Ayoki (deceased), George Mwangi, Chris Kavila (the writer of this post), were the four names from Lenana ’82 who beat a strong Zimbabwean side in Matebeleland, Zimbabwe in a memorable game. (I think the score was 36-42).
Most of the greatest Kenyan players to ever run onto a pitch were ex-Lenana. The list is too long to even name a few here.
So gentlemen, gentlemen, let’s have this discussion with the correct perspective shall we…
April 6, 2006 at 1:39 pm
Mr chris kavila lol
i suggest you wake up from that deep slumber you seem to be in 1982 is just one year in the many years of kenyan rugby i suggest you go back and read all my comments above .then came back and beg for forgiveness
April 10, 2006 at 1:49 am
1982 is but an example. Lenana remains the only school in the history of Kenyan rugby to have won the Eric Shirley Shield (playing against clubs) in 1977. And there…
Oh heck what’s the point…
Keguro and I rest our case. Let the jury decide.
BTW, what year were you in Gekuro?
May 14, 2006 at 5:50 am
by the way…look who won BlackRock this year…RVA…thats right..i know its been a while since we last won it but we manged to pull it off this year considering we had the smallest front row out there, we put up one hell of a fight
May 14, 2006 at 7:08 am
Hold on, RVA won Blackrock? How did I not know that?
Great job guys!
May 16, 2006 at 9:38 pm
Greatest Match Ever Played:
1998-Twikenham/Samba Park:Nairobi School Vs. Rift Valley Academy.
Final Results: Patch 8 RVA 6
Nairobi School Supper: Time 6:20pm-6:50pm
Final Whistle: 6:55pm
Over 600 students missed supper that night. ALL HAIL the greatest rugby school of all time.
May 17, 2006 at 8:04 am
Bah! the only thing I can say for Nairobi School is that it’s field has a cool name (Twickenham). RVA’s is just “upper field” – how lame. 🙂
May 24, 2006 at 10:46 am
Wow! my favorite subject, sport and pastime. As to the best schools program, it has to be RVA over the time span since it started playing the game in 1963. I played on the very first team in 1963, we had no uniforms and were a rag tag bunch of lads. In 1964 we began to play in the schools match play and we ended up our first year of organized ball with 3 wins.
The powers at that time were Duke of York and Prince of Whales. In 1965, our second year we lost to York 32-3 and to Nairobi (P of Whales) 32-3. On the return match that season we beat York 10-8 and beat Nairobi 8-6. In 1966 we lost to York 18-11 and tied them on the return at 13-13. Nairobi beat us 12-0 and 16-0. In 1967 one year after I graduated, the team lost one game and that was to Nairobi 9-6, in the previous match they beat Nairobi 24-12.
RVA was beating the powers, the York’s, St. Mary’s, Prince of Whales and Strathmore just after 2 years of organized ball and the teams we were beating were teams with years of experience. If you took the schools from 1964 to 2000 and looked at the % of wins against head to head, you would see that RVA wins hands down. This is not to take away from some of the great teams and seasons of other schools, but legacys are built over a period of time.
I will say one thing for RVA teams, I do not know about now, but in the old days, teams had never seen cheerleaders and that was one of our best weapons. Go Buffs. Thanks for allowing me to put in my two shillings worth — Asante Simba
May 24, 2006 at 11:05 am
I read a comment above that one ex patcherian was claiming best rugby posts.If you checked under the horizontal bar carefuly,you would see it labeld duke of yolk! Check man sold them to those dudes.
June 21, 2006 at 1:57 am
Any arguments against st marys????? bilaz. Kweli i know ive chelewad on this site dont know where ive been anyway i played for saints for a few years and 2 of them entirely undefeated and throughout my school life we lost at home (ellis park) only once to RVA. We transformed school rugby in the 90s and completely raised the bar. i remember most games it was not a question of if but by how much. anyway good to see soo many kenyans love rug.
June 21, 2006 at 2:00 am
as for joe semaing saints dominated coz of old guys???? saints bred talent full stop. my first game for the saints prescott,blackrock,nationals wining first 15 i was a tender 16 year old…
June 21, 2006 at 2:04 am
another point for joe…we still went undefeated years after caffrey left so i guess he was making calls from ireland to run things in prescott… GROW UP JOE GIVE PROPS WHERE THEY ARE DUE
June 21, 2006 at 2:24 am
AMA SPEAK THE TRUTH
1. BEST RUGBY SCHOOL – ST MARY’S NAIROBI (thats why they are most hated)
2. OTHERS WHO CAN CLAIM TITLE LENANA AND RVA FULLSTOP.
3. ANYONE ELSE IS SECOND RATE STARTING WITH PATCH…(your track record in prescott speaks heaps…why? it was the hardest most challenging tournament. history says you were no where to be seen.)
4. BEST FIELDS RVA AND SAINTS (any arguments???)
5. MOST ENTERTAINING LENANA PATCH AND SAINTS (fantastic runners high scores and high intensity and never say die attitudes)
6. BEST DEFENCE SAINTS (conceded less in 96,97 cumulatively then the second team conceded in 96 or 97)
7. BEST BACKLINE LENANA SAINTS (powerfull runners well organised)
8. BEST ORGANISED RVA (they knew there opponents inside out before every game…sometimes it didnt make a difference though)
9. BEST FORWARDS SAINTS (not the fastest pack but easily the most effective and efficient)
10. BEST FANS LENANA AND PATCH (any arguments)
11. BEST ANTHEM PATCH (the whole school sang loud and together with feeling)
12. MOST COMPLETE AND BALANCED SAINTS
AND THATS THE TRUTH (i know we will all support our schools, i watched rug since std 4 played all my high school years and watched school rug after as well…these are my experiences
June 29, 2006 at 11:14 am
Lets face facts, there have never been more exciting Blackrock Finals like 2000 (RVA beat Saints), 2003 (Nakuru High beat saints) and 2006 (RVA beat SAints – from behind!) Remember- in 2000 and 2006 Saints were defending champions.
No, I was not in RVA, as a matter of fact I was in Strath. Which Patcharian would like to talk about the opening game of prescott 1997!! or which chengarian would like to hear that their only win in Precott this year was 6-5 against Hillcrest!!!!!!
July 3, 2006 at 10:12 am
http://www.kenyarfu.com/sch%20nationals.cfm
NAIROBI SCHOOL ARE NATIONAL CHAMPS
June 17, 2006
Nairobi School is the new Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association national rugby champions.
Patch Machine as they are popularly known battled past a gritty Mang’u to win 14-13 in an exciting match at Mang’u High School. This is the second time Nairobi School has clinched the diadem since their first grip in 1996 when the championship was hosted by Coast Province at Mombasa Sports Club.
Going into the final Mang’u had a psychological advantage after beating the same team 20-12 at the pool stage. They were also playing at home. But Frank Nyamari – who was named the best player – had some tricks up his sleeves. He scored two tries which were converted by Peter Lugano to cause heartbreak to Mang’u.
Although Mang’u battled back and scored a try through James Kangethe, the trophy was headed for Nairobi School even after Ian Mwangi drilled over the conversion and added a drop goal. A penalty by Mang’u’s Joshua Gathumbi stopped one point short of turning the tables on Patch Machine who lost only one match on their way to the final.
By lifting the trophy, Nairobi School kept a strong tradition by Nairobi Province in rugby. It is the seventh time Nairobi Province has won the title.
Meru Boys School which is fast gaining ground on established rugby schools finished third edging out Maseno 18-12 in the play off.
In the semi-final, Mang’u showed no mercy to Meru School winning 41-0 while Nairobi School blanked Maseno 22-3.
Pool result
Pool ‘A’: Nakuru High 10 Nairobi School 18, Mang’u 34 Musingu High 0, Nakuru High 5 Mang’u 10, Nairobi School 22 Musingu 3.
Pool ‘B’: Tirige 0 Meru Boys 23, Waa 0 Maseno 63, Tirige 0 Maseno 12, Waa 0 Meru Boys 31, Tirige v Waa, Meru Boys 3 Maseno 6.
Semi-finals: Mang’u 41 Meru Boys 0, Maseno 3 Nairobi School 22.
Play off: Meru Boys 18 Maseno 12.
Final: Mang’u 13 Nairobi School 14.
Past winners
1981 Njoro Boys, 1992 Njoro Boys, 1993 Nakuru High, 1994 Lenana, 1995 St. Mary’s, 1996 Nairobi School, 1997 St. Mary’s School, 1998 St. Mary’s School, 1999 Lenana, 2000 Kakamega High, 2001 Nakuru High, 2002 Kakamega High, 2003 St. Mary’s Yala, 2004 St Mary’s, 2005 Nakuru High, 2006 Nairobi School.
Released by KRFU Media and Communications
communications@kenyarfu.com
July 3, 2006 at 10:18 am
ON THE WAY TO THE FINALShttp://allafrica.com/stories/200606130100.html
The East African Standard (Nairobi)
June 13, 2006
Posted to the web June 13, 2006
Oscar Pilipili
Nairobi
Nairobi School successfully defended their title after beating St Mary’s 15-8 in the Nairobi Province secondary schools’ rugby final on Monday.
St Mary’s were the first to score through Jeff Gichuhi who converted a penalty, but Nairobi drew level when Peter Rugane’s kick sailed between the posts. St Mary’s regained the lead when Andrew Mugano touched down for an 8-3 score that separated the teams at half time.
Nairobi caught up with St Mary’s when James Bosire scored an unconverted try for the teams to tie 8-8. A diving try by Ken Moseti that was converted by Rugane pushed Nairobi to a 15-8 lead, the score line they guarded to the final whistle.
Nairobi coach Willis Foxx said: “That was a great game. Despite missing regular players, my upcoming boys have proved they can shine when given the chance.”
Ken Moseti, who captained Nairobi, said the match was not easy in the opening minutes because they had not mastered their opponents’ game. St Mary’s coach Emman Akatsa conceded defeat saying the stronger team won.
Interestingly, Akatsa’s son, Emmanuel, plays for Nairobi in the wing position. The victory earned the champions a ticket to represent Nairobi during the Term Two A National Games starting on Monday at Mang’u High School in Central Province.
July 15, 2006 at 8:46 am
Nothing but the Best
The Only High school Rugby team ever to win
Eric Shirley Shield- at club level
Prescott Cup championship
Kenya National Rugby championship
Blackrock Cup
KRFU Sevens Cup
John Andrews Sevens cup
Keeping the Rose Bright
A MEAN a what?…….. A MEAN MAROON
July 15, 2006 at 4:11 pm
And all and any other High School Rugby tournament that there is. Don’t forget that they were also the greatest exporter of players to Saints (for IB program!!! but nuff respects to all the changarians who went to Saints but never played against Chagez when they went head-to-head at least during the days I was in school…. people like Toshy and them. Like they say … Once a Changarian…. Always a Changarian). And as mentioned above the greatest contributor to Kenya team.
So tell me who’s the best of All-time??? you be the jugde
July 20, 2006 at 12:00 pm
sword fish Says:
May 24th, 2006 at 11:05 am
I read a comment above that one ex patcherian was claiming best rugby posts.If you checked under the horizontal bar carefuly,you would see it labeld duke of yolk! Check man sold them to those dudes.
joe says rumours: lets set the record straight . in 2002 nairobi school along with the high court of kenya and state house nairobi were declared historical building to be preserved for future generations .why all three are great works of Sir Herbert Baker .see.www.old cambrians.com and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Baker
for more information.
while lenana school that pre historic relic will be consigned the heap Nairobi school will continue to live on as the real masterpiece it is . Which brings me to a little known fact that many changerians who peddle lies dont know . the patch rugby posts are part of a unique design laid out by sir hurbert the bugle stand area the clock towers and the southern rugby posts lie in a straight line marking an exact east and west , a design the was layed out in 1929. well before mr maneno sold your posts to i dont know who .(plesase check with saint marys) those posts were at twikenham/samba park long before changez even become a school (1940s)i suggest u visit http://www.oldcambrians.com the photo section and school history can settle all your issues
July 20, 2006 at 12:33 pm
http://www.oldcambrians.com/PhotosSchoolTeams.html
July 21, 2006 at 9:30 am
Yes we do love our rugby! Too bad Kenya 15s sucks. I think all ‘true’ rugby fans love 15s rather than sevens. And when I say true fans I mean all those who loved rugby before safari sevens and have played.
Take for example the current 7s captain Felix ochieng.playing 7s is wasting his talents. He is probably the best 8th man ever produced in Kenya -yes 8th man! Anyone who watched him play in the 1993 Prescott cup should know. though at the time I was just a patch colt watching him ,sasha nginja(saints),Eugene ligale(changez),Theo osogo(patch) play in a 15 game was devastatingly entertaining. Watching him play now being the star he is) is just plain old boring.
ps just for the record having said all I have said I give props to changez,mangu, rva and of late alliance for outstanding excellence on the rugby field . saints domination of schools rugby from 1990-1996(excluding 1993)in my view does not deserve a tribute in a history of 80 years of school rugby in Kenya coupled with the fact that this era coincided with the abolition of 5th and 6th form in other schools. They were a passing cloud soon to be forgotten in Kenyan rugby history.
July 21, 2006 at 2:30 pm
Hey Joe, I actually played in that 1993 Prescott finals (RVA vs Lenana) where Lenana won – I still hang my head in shame…
Anyway, those guys like Felix Ochieng, Ligale and Osogo were REALLY good. Sasha was the guy who blocked the drop-kick in 1992 (RVA vs Saints), got a lucky bounce and scored the try to win it. Another crushing loss that year!
Man, those guys were great players, but thanks for bringing back all the horrible memories! 🙂
July 21, 2006 at 5:53 pm
Hash don’t fret that was the best of the best. I hate to admit this being a patch man but the 1993 lenana team could have beat any team including Kenya team. That year we lost to them in the semi final played at lenana after having an undefeated run. Patch also had a very good team that year we knew that Prescott was going to be won by the winner of the patch changez semi final. Later on, I went to uni with Eugene and I was like a star truck kid looking at a hero. I had to keep reminding myself kijana you are a patcharian
ps. am sure you remember your loss at samba park that year .you guys had a solid defense that year you completely locked out moon kid(patch winger mukasa) but am sure you still remember Theo and his dancing all over you guys- those were the best tries ever in all my four years in patch.
After that we converted the techno song rhythm is a dancer …you can feel it everywhere … into a cheer song Theo is a dancer…You can see him everywhere (on the field that is)
the black rock semi final against lenana was decided with a coin toss after a draw in regular time and over time and conversions sadly a year later both converters FROM BOTH SCHOOLS DIED Tano(MAROON) and Amunga(APATCHI) RIP
July 23, 2006 at 12:03 am
Who won the 2006 Prescott. Juast an old Manguman wanting to know how WAzimba fared
July 23, 2006 at 6:38 am
You know, I think it was Nairobi School, but I’m not 100% on that.
August 1, 2006 at 4:29 am
The greatest school rugby game ever played was the John Andrews memorial sevens semi finals, Patch vs. RVA in 1987. Two patch warriors broke their bones in the early part of the game, Wesonga broke a collar bone and Mwangovia his ankle. The rules back then was that you could not sub an injured player. Patch was left with five players to RVAs 7 one man on the line Vincent “Omweri†Onyango, the greatest under rated rugby player in Kenya.
Omweri scored two tires playing fly-half, center and wing by himself!!!! He cut them all like a hot knife though butter, it still brings tears to my eyes. Patch went on to win the semi final and the entire tournament. In fact that year patch won all the tornamnets and was runner ups in Prescott.
Enough of dem are ron up dier mouths
Enough of them of them a say deya de best
But when it come to de best we know patchie are de best
We are de best, we are de best ina dis ya contest!!!!!!
August 2, 2006 at 4:11 pm
As the only organizers of a school strike because of rugby.”No rugby No school” i think our records speaks for itself ,our love for he game unmatched.
i take a chair and take a rest
i leave it to the people to suggest
but when it comes to the best i know
PATCHIE is the best
Go home! we are de best we are de best in dis-a- Contest
August 3, 2006 at 4:18 pm
As a Changerian I have to go with Changez.
The team we always wanted to beat was Patch BUT the team to beat was RVA. The Saints were good & it was an event when they came marching in!
1993 had some great players including Patrick Opiyo, Oliver Khabure, Martin Ndeda among others!
Checkman would have sold the scholl if he could… I am surprised the rugby pitch wasn’t allocated or turned into a bloody farm!
Who remembers the shamba next to the main Rugby Pitch?
August 9, 2006 at 12:11 pm
Lets establish something…Face the facts..the most entertaining, dramatic, nail biting games ever played on the the school scenes for the past 30 years were between Saints, RVA, Changez and Patch…The rest of the schools are useful for statistical reference……..Each of these 4 teams as in any sport had their time at the top….They were all great rugby schools..As for the best out of the four it will have to be the SAINTS!!!!! Thats why they hate us so much……ALA Liverpool FC…. May not be the strongest, richest club but they always seem to take the glory away from the Man U, Arsenal and Chelsea..
August 10, 2006 at 9:30 am
What most people forget about Swai’s miracle shot is that he had just purposely fouled a Rosso player, thinking we were down one, when in fact the game was tied. Someone, probably Borut or Davo, hit two clutch free throws, putting Rift down for real. Then Swai double-clutches from 35 feet–from goat to hero in a span of 10 seconds. Hash, send me a copy, too.
August 16, 2006 at 10:00 pm
When it comes to representing shags it must be BUSH!!!!!
August 18, 2006 at 11:31 am
Rarely does a sportsman or sportswoman step on the scene who becomes not only an icon in their particular sport, but also a legend whose name is spoken with reverence, years after they have proceeded to other arenas in their lives.
Sports is the only field that produces icons and legends on a regular basis, so much so that there are a multiplicity of them in nearly every sport, game and passtime invented.
But, there are few who have made a difference in the lives of their fans and fellow sportsfolk, inspired others to greatness and gone on to be successful in their chosen professions after the adrenaline and hurrahs of the big game were over.
Edward Rombo is such an athlete.
He played Rugby Union for his school, various clubs in Nairobi and finally a slew of Rugby League clubs in the United Kingdom.
Rombo was born 34 years ago. He grew up in Nairobi and wound up in secondary school at Nairobi School, one of Kenya’s schools rugby strongholds. His passion for the game showed early on in his sporting life, when he started working out with crude weights in his parent’s back yard as a Form Two student on holiday from the boarding school, affectionately, or unaffectionately, given the nature of the game, known as the “Patch Machine.”
“I basically liked sports, and at home I couldn’t play. So I started working out, lifting a pole, which had been used to prop up a clothes line. Later I added empty tires to the pole,” reminisced Rombo.
Thus his foundation for a solid career, playing the “greatest game of all” was laid in those sessions at home.
Nairobi School was one of the few schools equipped with a gym and Edward made use of it in his latter high school years, when he became a class player ahead of his time. He speaks highly of Eric Kibe, another Patch player who had a spell playing Rugby League for Hunslett, also in the U.K.
“Eric was a fantastic scraum-half,” he said. “He had good body size, could pick up the ball like an eighth man and tackle. He was only let down by a shoulder injury that nagged him as a professional.”
Other Patch players who recently went for trials with Manchester Rugby Union team in the U.K. are Paul Murunga and Nicholas Olewe. They, like Rombo are wingers, with speed and plenty of experience, in Murunga’s case. Olewe is only a year out of school but has impressed many with his fleet-footedness. By coincidence, they were introduced to Manchester by the same person who brought Rombo to the U.K. Murunga and Olewe are now back home,
Murunga playing fullback for Kenya in the World Cup qualifying matches for Africa and Olewe with the Kenya Sevens team on their tour of Dubai and Durban, the first round of the International Rugby Board Sevens Series, 2001-2002. Rombo knows the value of extra training for rugby besides what the ream does on practice days, and does not second-guess the sacrifice a player must make to be prepared for this greatest of challenges.
August 20, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Personaly I think the only reason Patch.Saints,RVA,&Changez went ahead in kenyan school rugby was cos the compe was not fair:better facilities.In the past 4 years we’ve had newcomers winnin Prescott i.e Mangu 06,Finalist 05- Bush 03,Finalist 06.I dont think Saints won anything this season,Changez won only one game in Prescott!!!! nuff said
August 28, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Odiero,
The cheerleaders at the RVA grounds were a sight to behold, especially with the scenic background. I think that’s why guys lost in Kijabe -nothing to do with the altitude, just no blood where it mattered!
September 4, 2006 at 6:38 am
Well somebody needs to mention Musingu those guys know how to beba guys. Ayway patch for life somebody needs to mention the likes of Omuse scrum half patch team 1998 kenya school champions what was that again Kenya champions we are the best in this contest so the rest go home
September 5, 2006 at 2:22 am
Mean Maroon. The illest. Different class. Enough said.
September 5, 2006 at 2:27 am
though in all fairness, saints, patch, rva deserve mentions also. as for the rest..catch up!
September 9, 2006 at 8:12 am
Introducing the annual “Christopher Otambo memorial scholarship”:
I am pleased to announce the first annual christopher otambo scholarship to be award to a Nairobi school student/Team for outstanding contribution to the school. This ward celebrates the life of the greatest sporstman in kenya: Chris was an all round player but concerntrated in field hockey he was in 2-3 olympics and won numerous awards along with being the first african to play in the first world eleven team(he was once considered the best in the world in his position). Chris’s best quality was his humility and respect for others and always took care to make sure your that you did well on and off the pitch.
The Scholarship this year (2006) was awarded to the Rugby Team for clinching the schools Championship. Each student was awarded a tuition scholarship for third term. A total of fifteen scholarships were awarded(total ksh 100,000). Former patcharians can contact the current headmaster Mr Masese for a contribution towards the 2007 Christopher Otambo scholarship
Initial sponsor: Esther Mwikali Mutiso Memorial foundation:” Perhaps she came for a moment such as This”
September 9, 2006 at 11:24 am
Daktari, that is really a neat scholarship! I’ve shot you an email, as I’d like to cover this in greater detail – if it isn’t being already. If it is, share the link with everyone.
September 21, 2006 at 8:05 am
Surely, what’s all the useless banter about. Let’s face the facts. Saints is indeed the best school’s team to have graced the rugby pitches of Kenya ever PERIOD! Between 1991 and 2000 we were virtually unstoppable, winning the Presscott Cup 7 times( 91,92,95,96,97,98,99), winning Blackrock consecutively between 1993 and 1999. National Champions in 95,97,98. Today, our prowess though not as dominating as the 90’s, as other teams have finally caught up, has still produced results. We have consistently reached the semi-finals and finals of the major school’s tournaments in the past 6 years..winning some and yes, losing some albeit gracefully.
And a word for Joe! Yes, we may have had a couple of ex-changerians and patcherians during the crowning years. But just ask them which school they would rather play for. Undeniably, Saints. Once a Saint always a Saint homeboy. Infact, I don’t remember ever having more than one high profile player in a Saints Squad from another prominent rugby playing school. If there were any they were usually marginalized at either patch or changes,probably never played, and Saints brought the best out of them. Predominantly, our players have been Saints born and bred. As for being old: We all know that some of the fourth formers who turned up for patch were well over 18. Some as old as 21 and in Form 4. The average age of a Saints player even with form 5 and 6 was 18.6 during those years, and is even lower now. We have produced award winning teams without your players and will continue to do so. As an example, I can name the Saints team of 1998 which won every preponderant trophy on offer, and without outside help: Prescott, Blackrock, National 15’s and the inaugral School’s Safari Sevens.
Best game ever: Well, a few come to mind like the 1992 Prescott final between Saints and RVA, the 1997 Prescott final between Saints and Changez , the 1999 Prescott semifinal between Saints and RVA where we came back from 17:0 down to win the game and the 1999 Prescott final between Saints and RVA which was one of our greatest wins ever: 9:6 with 30 seconds remaining, and a 50 metre penalty kick from our mercurial kicker sends the game into extra time, in which we proceed to win. Lenana fans proceed to stone our buses. Sour grapes that’s all I can say. Patch and changez have been some of the soarest losers, with hooligans for fans, but one thing they have never been able to do is dilute the victories of the royal Blue and White: Stripes forever!!
September 21, 2006 at 8:14 am
Ooops my bad. The 1999 final between Saints and Changez!
September 22, 2006 at 9:12 am
Dear Cssp,
Thank you for brief despite your attempts to re write history.As i indicated there is no doubt that saints dominated the 90s but rugby in kenyan schools has been going on from the 30s when teams such as patch machine and mean maroon played in kenya cup games and toured south africa as kenyans schools combined team .so yes saint marys has produced some good players but 10 years of dominance haddly makes saints the best rugby school in a history that spans 80 years of rugby .
As for the 5th and 6th formers that played for saints it is a well known and undeniable fact that many of the players were natured in schools like patch changes and strathmore.Yes i agreee that some never played for these schools at a schools level but they did play in house rugby teams.(side note house rugby teams in patch and changes deserve to play in prescott- patch has a total of 8 house with 2 house teams a jnr team a snr team and a colts team making that a total of 40 rugby teams not including patch machine and the babarians) but due to the large number of talented players and limited spacein the first 15 they never got to play at school level.that being said that ishould not be an excuse to claim that the talent they had was not as a result of going to patch .
As for the hoooliganism , i for one must say that being a young blooded young man at the time ,those were some of the most enjoyable school moments (including the patch no rugby no school strike).yes we were a little rowdy but you see we all werent caffrey alter boys like ur lot
I guess i have made my point i am not dismissing saints .ops ok … i am …like i said 10 years is hardly anything to go by .when it comes to the rugby eternity that has and continues to be school rugby in kenya .saints isnt even up there with patch ,changez and rva.
PS I rank alliance and strathmore higher than saints
October 3, 2006 at 7:05 am
Lets move the debate a notch higher when it comes to club rugby in Kenya I vouch for Impala and mean machine.
October 9, 2006 at 4:30 am
Lenana school has always been and will alwats be the best. It is not how many times you win but whether when you fall you are able to stand up again and show character.Its about having attitude and proving to the world that you are the best beyond any reasonable doubt . Lenana shcool has that and even Nairobi school can be our witnesses
October 16, 2006 at 12:09 pm
pitts there is no higher debate when it comes to kenyan rugby . club rugby in kenya sucks its boring and about ego.school rugby rules. i would rather watch a patch changez match anytime. its more entertaining and has more skills. the problem with cub rugby in kenya is they try to make it technical but they are unable to reach the technical levels that are entertaining. school rugby on the other hand is about fun,players have the freedom to show natural skill.that combined with the sheer passion and ball handling makes school rugby king.
October 22, 2006 at 5:23 pm
I have just stumbled on this website and the saint’s player hating by joe is abit overcooked. I played for the saints champions of prescott 91-92. Our team was loaded with a mix of players from 2ndform onwards. Age was never an issue nobody was over 19, if it was changez and patch should have used some of the over 20yrs men they had in their school. We simply trained hard and played harder. Big ups to changez though it was never easy playing against them. RVA were the fairest opponents we had they never played dirty just Hard.
October 31, 2006 at 3:04 pm
From the string of replies, I come to the conclusion that Patch and Changes are a bunch of hooligans. Yes Hooligans. Ati unalia! Lia. Anyway Patch and Changes are a bunch of hooligans, RVA are fair minded hard playing gentlemen and Saints are just dominant. DOMINANT. All I am hearing is a bunch of sissies who wish they went to Saints but could not. As for Patch, stick to singing and Changes to grazing
November 3, 2006 at 9:36 am
We all know that cabbage patch is a restaurant at Twickenham (the real twickenham). is that what patch guys are? a bunch of cabbages?
Why attack saints, at least we all managed to beat them.
Talk about a team that relied on old guys- Saint Austins basketbnall team!
November 4, 2006 at 9:07 am
As an ex Saint and an avid all round sportsman in the 80’s, I recall that Saints had players whose all round athletic prowess was utilized in all sports all year round and didnt start focusing solely on rubgy until 86, 87.
I remember well the amazing players like Paul Madoc Otucho who played 1st tema rugby, basketball, hockey and football. Ombati and Johhny Claessen who were two of the most talented football players in the country (yes , the country ), Moose Mbijiwe, Richard Kiplagat, Collins Omollo to name a few. Saints players were all round athletes who happened to play in an era where there was a dedicated and committed coach (Fr Caffrey) and would he have been there earlier, I doubt that any other schools would have enjoyee their time at the top.
Boarding schools have the advantage that the kids eat, sleep and breathe rubgy as there are no other outlets that the day school kids have such as chicks, tv, bars etc etc
Hopefully this energy at the school level will eventually translate into a team at senior level that can compete with the worlds best…..
November 8, 2006 at 9:27 pm
P5 the names you have just come up with take me way back. You could also mention Andrew Gitonga, Robert Koech, Kang’ara, Kagagi. Just to add to those who set the foundation for saints domination of the nineties.
November 14, 2006 at 10:27 am
it seems an email went out to the saint alumni about this post .No i wasnt playa hating . saints dominated the 90s i can denie that .but a random sample of famous saints players in the 90s confirms my poin
alyois okello-played for strath he was 19-he then played for saints 2more years
jimmy kimbo-played for strath then moved to saints played another 2 years
arnold omondi-played for patch-moved to saints played 2 more years-if you use the logic patch players were 20 and over arnold was 20+2 at sainrs
john kiare-patch 4 years saints 2,i wont even go on to Ogre,and the saints team between1992-1994 those guys were 25 plus hhihihihi!,
Fr caffre- dont get me started on him
November 18, 2006 at 3:10 pm
Joe, I can see you are a little bitter. Now, let me name some home grown Saints of the 90s. Andrew Ondiek aka Ndiri, Sasha Nginja, Akali, Kwame, Koech, Odera, and the list goes on. These are guys who played hard on and off the field. And to even mention jimmy kimbo who left changes and became a second team guy as akali was better than him at winger tells you the caliber of players homegrown at saints were. So, I would suggest you do a little more reading in your history.
November 18, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Ukweli, I’d just like to say that I played against all those guys you just mentioned – they were all some of the best ruge players that I came across. Ndiri was a nightmare to tackle, Sasha/Kimbo/Akali were all impossible to even get your fingers on.
November 22, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Please not that most of the guyz mentioned above were in 3rd form or 2nd form at the time they were playing for saints and were part of the championship sides of 91-92. Also please note that Ogre was a saintarian before he went to patch and came back home to Saints. Like I said if age was an issue I am sure changes and patch had loads of old guyz. I saw them they should have used those guyz.
a
November 30, 2006 at 8:16 am
lol the only playa of repute home grown from saints i can say is sasha that on i cant refuse . dont get me wrong i am not saying saints is bure .its just over hyped-you dominate for 10 years and you think you are the best post 1995 saints doesnt even qualify for prescott semi’s pre 1990 saints was useless just to make up numbers how then can you guys be the best rugby school
The best judge of quality i think is the national team-its a fact that since kenya statrted playing rugby mpaka now kenya team is dominated almost to a man by ex changerians and patcharians full stop.
Ndiri and shasha may have been good but the hall of fame of the ligales,lopokoits,kibe,felix ocieng,rombo olewe 1 &2 can not be matched by saints .thats just a fact. ask any true rugby fan they will tell you.
The fact that a patch /changes match jazas stadiums even on a work day tells you -we are the best in this contest.Which other game between schools has more fans/both school kids and grown ups or press coverage than a patch changez match .
na hiyo ni ukweli was mambo
December 2, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Dear Joe,
You will never understand Saints rugby even if we had a ‘history of Saints rugby’ class for you. We all know that we (kenya) do not have a good link between schools rugby and the Kenya national team. It has never been there because we have never been a professional rugby playing nation. We play it as a hobby, so you can not use the measure of national team representation to substantiate your claims of any dominance. Believe you me, and I reiterate believe you me, if all the ex-Saints players mentioned above and all the others who have not been named here played serious rugby after school (say like in a country like NZ) then we would not be having the problems that have hindered our emergence as a rugby force to be reckoned with. Infact, I would venture to say we could have been one of the premier rugby playing nations had this happened….I hope you get the nuance of my words!!!!! (not to take anything away from all those ex-Saints players, however few they may be that have represented the country, and all other individuals from whichever school who are representing or have represented the nation).
December 2, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Joe, That was a great run down of the Patch and Changes great. Now, could you please tell me how many Prescott cups they won?
December 4, 2006 at 8:16 am
Interesting stuff. I find most of this a bit young for me so will not comment, but good exchanges. As a former player and former coach, I believe we need to share the knowledge and find a neutral ground for our common benefit as Kenyans.
December 13, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Joe and his maroon patches. I think the only team that has won the presscot cup more than saints is RVA. I remember in my playing days all the schools used to cheer against us. Except Mso of course.
That was just envy. It still persists to this day
December 16, 2006 at 10:28 pm
I attended both saints and patch and can honestly tell you Patch is the better rugby playing school its a well recorded fact that saints did indeed have an age advantage, which i also suspect RVA also had. Saints and Rva also had a lot of resources to train them including training camps, team diets etc. Patch and Changez actually had player coaches most of the time and we still mananged to vanquish them. In patch playing changez was a life and death affair. Until today changez has never won a single match against patch at twickenham “samba” park. eg the 1991 patch team lost all their matches during prescott except against………..? (no prizes for guessing) Am not sure my numbers are correct but i think by 1990 patch had even won blackrock more times than the hosts !!in patch we always suspected Caffrey (saints coach)had the KRFU sevens removed from the calendar because there was no one who could match patch for a record 5 years !!!
By the way the 2006 sevens team had a record 4 ex patcherians !!!!!!!!!!!
“i take a seat, and then i take a rest
i leave it to the people to suggest
but when it comes to the best
I know, Patchie is the best
go home !!!
btw joe thanks for the spirited defence !!!!
December 16, 2006 at 11:05 pm
Timo. I don’t normally dip into the patch vs changez vs saints argument to much. We enjoyed a healthy competition amongst ourselves, and we always played fair.
I’ll go on record right now as saying that we didn’t have anyone over age – NONE. In fact, we had a brilliant fullback who wasn’t allowed to play in our senior year because he didn’t make the age cut. RVA always played by the rules.
Now, we did have a coach, and that’s an advantage that served us well. We were not always the top team athletically, but we made up for it in fitness, technique and tactics.
And if, by team diets, you mean that we got the cold sloppy leavings of the rest of the school since practice didn’t finish until after everyone else had eaten – then yes, we had a team diet. 🙂
December 17, 2006 at 9:45 pm
Even though we had pre-season training clinics, that was the only time we could get the team truly fit. You have to remember that Changez and patch & RVA were boarding schools and had access to their players 24/7.
I have to admit that fitness was never an issue for those teams.
As for player coaches what do you call Herbo, and Thimba.
I saw them coach changez.
Laters
December 18, 2006 at 12:17 pm
Timo, I think you are a bitter man. Infact, I don’t think you even played rugby in Saints if you ever did attend Saints, so you would never know what it’s about. Stop your conspiracy theories on Fr. Caffrey because even after he left us in 1995 we still continued winning for another 5 years…and yes with player-coaches too!!!!
December 19, 2006 at 6:47 am
Hey Joe. How about a math class. If you add up all the Prescott cup Championship victories of changez and Patch they don’t amount to Half of those of Saints. A now to qoute JayZ ” Men lie, Women lie, Numbers Don’t!”
December 22, 2006 at 2:17 pm
easy winning presscot between 1990-1996 excluding changeez 93 does not make saints the best team do the math what about all those other years that changez won before your over age players come into the scene .
or the years that patch has won prescott or met changez in the finalsever since 96.
you do the math how many players in kenya team come from outside the changez patch axis.
how many times has saints won floodlights
how many times has saints won nations
how many times did saints win school sevens
how many times did saints win john andrews
you do the math get over saints dominating the 90’s it means nothing.only those who were in saints inthe 90 talk about it . talk to rugby players of the 20s 30s40s 50s 60s 70s 80s and pst 1996 they will all tell you saints means jack in schools rugby in kenya
this debate is limited to patch,changez rva ,nakuru high,strathmore and alliance .which all have beeter records than saints.
plus it is a wekll known fact thta even in the 90s Fr. Caffrey doctored matches so saint could win .
how many prescott cup have you won again since Fr. Caffrey left kenyan rugby —-aaah yes answer that and do that math
December 22, 2006 at 5:58 pm
If I didn’t know any better I would think that Fr. Caffrey is the Boogey man or Freddie kruger or something. I am in stiches right now coz I am laughing so hard at the allegetions that Caffrey doctored matches. If I didn’t know that you are serious I would suggest you become a comedian.
Now let me clear some misconceptions. Father Caffrey was mainly a rugby falicitator for saints. He made sure we had the uniforms, the food, the transport the Clinics.
In a nutshell he did the job most team managers do and he was good at it.
Now all the conspiracy theories are just a way to explain away the ineptness of other teams at a time when saint’s were clearly…, by a hefty margin the best team in the country. I think saints haters convince themselves of this so they can sleep better at night.
Now about the nonsensical age issue that is brought up constantly like a broken record.
I would refer you to take a look at the 91-92 saints annual. In it you will see representatives of the kenyans u-19 schools team. Please note ogre was in that picture. Also if you see the saints team the whole entire team is under 18.
This same team won the presscott cup twice in a row still under 18.
I can walk into changes and patch today and pickout several people over 20.
I will admit I didn’t have an intimate knowledge of subsequent teams But I have a feeling they probably not so old as they are made out to be.
As far as naturing talent saints has age group teams from primary school all the way up.
Ndiri, Sasha, Robert Koech, are just examples of players in the saints team whole played in the primary school team.
Infact some primary team players went to other schools and spread the rugby religion.
As for the best school ever in rugby. Hands down it will have to be RVA. I still have the utmost respect for them till today. Saints is up there with them.
Everyone else comes a distant third
Enough said.
December 22, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Ps. I held the Prescott cup. Now before we started winning that Cup. Changez only won that cup once in 1982. Patch never. I hope that answers your question.
December 23, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Easy, let me help you bro.
Joe you seem not too well versed with Saints accolades. Let me give you a “brief” run down:
Prescott: 91,92,93,95,96,97,98,99
Blackrock: 93,94,95,96,97,98,99,2004,2005
National schools fifteens: 95,97,98,2004, (and in 1993 we went with exactly 13 players and reached the semi-finals) Also, Saints happens to have represented Nairobi province at the Nationals since 1995 until today either as defending champions or by virtue of being the Nairobi provincial champions.
Kenya schools u-19 team for tour to SA in 1993: Saints had the most players…. ditto 95,96,97
Hedex Grand slam: for the best of the best only: National Champions vs Prescott Champions: won it in 1995,1996 (they killed it after that)
Orbits Sports best school team of the year: 1995/6
Schools Safari Sevens winners: 1998, Runners up: 1999 (All other teams were combined…we won it as Saints in 1998 and finished runners up as Saints -representing Nairobi- again in 1999…Kyran Bracken (guest of honor and former England scrum-half) told us our style was like the All Blacks.. fast paced, action packed !!!!
Schools National Sevens: 2002,2004,2005
Dubai Sevens (schools): Runners-up 2005 ( has Changes or Patch played ever played there???)
Only Kenyan school to be featured in an IRB documentary: SAINTS.
If any other school can match the above feats tell me and I will rest my case. Only RVA comes close: they won Prescott since its inception in 1980 till 1990. Changes and Patch have had some great individual players I can’t deny that, but Saints was the most complete team as proved by our achievements above. Any questions?
December 23, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Thanks Cssp for giving Joe a saints Rugby history lesson in addition to the Math Class I had organized for him Earlier.
I would just wish to add that we also won the nationals in 1992 as well as prescott cup.
December 23, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Cheers Easy I forgot that one.
And more Prescott : 2004 and 2005. (take out 1993, that was one the few that we fell short).
You better recognize all ye haters.
December 23, 2006 at 2:36 pm
Hey Cssp With this new info I have to change my position. Saints is actually the best Rugby school ever. I still think highly of RVA though.
Those guyz were awesome in their Days. I remember a Kevin Kaufeldt and Kip Cherogoni.
Anyway I can now see why Joe and his playa haters envy us so much.
December 23, 2006 at 8:22 pm
White african, I think you touched a soft spot with this one.
December 24, 2006 at 4:49 pm
CSSP interesting analysis my guy you must be an ODM spin doctor since graduating from saints .
lets start with international exposure . the only reason saints get exposure is because saints is a private school and hence you guys can pay for travel .cash strapped school like lenana and patch cant pay for foreign travel .plus government regulations do all they can prevent travel . because of complications of insuarance etc. so saints going to dubai means nothing in the ’70s and 60 a combined patch changez team “the original schools combined” toured south africa,zim and namibia every year and won many matches before all travel to sa was banned .
NOW like i noted you have listed saints wins in prescott which we dont refuse but contest for other reasons read fr cafrey. you also mention blackrock but where is the complete list of
Nationals
John Andrews
RVA colts
Impala floodlights
RFUEA sevens-before it was stopped
Winning prescott is all good but it cant be a benchmark for the best schools rugby .like i said
How many saints players have played for kenya?
How many saints players have nbeen signed to play rugby professionaly?
How many Nationals have you won since 1929
And most importantly how many kenya cup matches have you played in and won – changez and patch have played at the highest legue at one time how about saints
December 24, 2006 at 5:23 pm
Joe You have already been exposed as a playa hater.
Everybody and their mother knows that prescott is the bench mark of school rugby. Atleast it was during my time and during the ten years of RVA domination .
You keep going back to the 30’s and 40’s. That is just so lame. I don’t think there were any real school championships in those days.
Please recognize that saint’s is clearly the best shool ever.
Now how can giving you hard facts be spin.
Like I said before your calling is in comedy.
Join the vitimbi cast or something
December 24, 2006 at 6:16 pm
easy wacha zako just coz saints started playing rugby in the late 80s you assume ati their was no competitive rugby earlier than that . prescott is not the bench mark of greatness .
we have to first establish a bench mark i think prescott is one bench mark not the only one
my bench marks have already been listed including number of players in kenya team ,and other tournament wins
kuwa serious playa hating on saints lol dont even go there .i was in patch -prince of wales -nairobi school . a national school kijana you have no idea what you are talking about ! saints is just a school for middle class kenyans who think they are rich .-keywords middleclass and think
December 24, 2006 at 7:12 pm
Wether Patch is a national school or Saints is a school for the middle class is irrelevant in this.
White african started this posting by saying that Saints played Rva way back in 1963.
Still we have in the Saints library yearly annuals that dating backsince the begining of saints. By reviewing this annuals you will come to the conclusion that saint’s has indeed a long history of rugby.
The prescott cup was the most coveted schools trophy. It was a season long affair. Unlike the one day exbhition events you keep listing.
How can you say patch is the better team when year after year after year we beat you in the prescott cup.
I ask all saintarians to be proud of their long rugby history and heritage.
And all haters to recognize
December 25, 2006 at 2:11 am
hey there guys.just stumbled on this website and on seeing this debate i just had to wach a comment.this joe dude is a saints hater kabisa.what has saints done to you.hadi sasa you have stopped talking about rugby you have gone in to hating on theschool it self man. Honestly man ebu tell us what did saints do.
December 25, 2006 at 5:44 am
I just think years of watching Saints lift trophy after trophy after trophy just got to him.
All he has got in his arsenal is just how many players end up in the Kenyan Team. An argument that is just as lame as his forays into the colonial era. Since we all know many a good rugby player persue careers that don’t allow them the luxury of playing higher rugby and are thus lost to kenyan Rugby.
December 25, 2006 at 11:01 am
Joe, paleazzzzzze!!!!! What more do you want? All your arguments from the beginning of this blog mpaka now have been defeated: your Fr. Caffrey arguments, old players arguments, national team representation arguments, trophies arguments: (and there may be more accolades which I do not know of from years past my memory). The only preponderant school tourneys we haven’t won are Floodies and John Andrews because we never played in them…they conflicted with our school musicals. We have been playing rugby since 1939 when Saints was founded….we just didn’t awake from a deep slumber and decide that today would be a good day to pick up a rugby ball. Dude!!!!
Now you begin with non seqitur and red herring arguments about us being a school for rich Kenyans. Kakamega High (2004) and Maseno (2006) have played in Dubai. I guess the richest kids in Kenya go to these schools???
Hash, declare this debate closed…when people ala Joe resort to personal attacks and accusations then a logical argument is impossible.
Dominance and superiority is measured by consistency at the highest level for an extended period of time. Disjointed wins and achievements here and there can’t be used to validate anything: we can argue about lady luck in such cases. But when you do it year in, year out then only Saints and possibly RVA can claim to be the best. Fullstop aka Period.
A little trivia: Brian O’Driscoll (Ireland), one of the best centres in world rugby, attended Blackrock College in Dublin (Saints’ sister school). Our annual Blackrock tournament is named after it. Back in the day, Saints and Blackrock College used to exchange students. Who knows, O’Driscoll could have attended Saints had this continued?
Joe, how is that for professional????
Have a happy holiday!
December 25, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I think I have just figured out Joes Benchmark. He want to lower the benchmark low enough so that Patch can be the best rugby school without having to win a single Prescott cup.
His strategy is to Playa hate Champions Saints to the limit. Then fish for possible glory in the colonial era since patch have hardly won anything worth mentioning in the past 30years.
December 25, 2006 at 6:42 pm
O’Driscoll could have attended Saints lol very funny !
this issue is not closed and nobody resort to personal attacks and accusations .and just for the record patch has won prescott ontop of all other awards there is no compe that patch hasnt won.including your blackrock tournament .so dont eben jaribu that !
a few posts ago you guys said saints players never played professionally because they were trying to make money elsewhere! now you come up with this crap that oDriscoll could have played for saints as an exchange student lol haha ! (borderline madness)what next lomu was sponsoring a kid in saints so that make you the best !
saints players nnot playing for kenya has nothing to do with career its about quality . other people have had careers and played rugby for kenya let me give you a small example
ever heard of J.J Masiga.(if you are an old school kenyan you remember the man) star of AFC Leopards in the mid80s played for harambee stars and kenya team rugby ..all after playing soccer and rugby for patch . and to make it even worse the dude was a medical doctor – KRFUEA OR ANY OLDSCHOOL JAMAA can testify so that crap about saints people being professionals and no money in kenyan rugby just tellS you .they only play for cash not for the love of the game !
I wont keep arguing with you about schools rugby
school rugby in kenya is all about patch and changez .throw in rva into the mix the rest are just partime contenders .who contribute nothing to rugby in kenya .infact i am glad old rugby powers such as alliance ,mangu are back.
Since 844 was abolished schools like hilcrest and saints dominated fielding old players . but slowly other schools have adjusted to the unfair advantage .
why is it that saints won all its major tournament wins when Mo1 stoped 5th and 6th form and saints still had IB.
why doesnt kenya team always have saints players if you guys are so good ?
you say you dont take part in some rugby tournaments because you are busy prancing on stage at your music festival .while school like patch even had a no school no rugby strike !that even the ministry of edication and the BOG supported !
what else do i need to say . the SAINTS Chapter is closed as far as i am concern .i will only debate school rugby with mean maroon supporters i dont have time for fake contenders
December 25, 2006 at 8:18 pm
Saints you have clearly taken a hiding from Saint in this one. Your last arguments are the kicks of a dying horse. Your arguments have been lame to date. It is a wise thing for you to decide not to argue with saints anymore.
The age theories and Father Caffrey arguments you have whinged about constantly like a broken record have been proved to be sleep therapy for playa haters.
Go back into the abyss you call patch rugby and argue with teams with minimal records like yours
You disgust me
December 25, 2006 at 8:20 pm
Ps I meant Joe
December 26, 2006 at 6:55 am
I have to say joe made some valid points about 5th and 6th form players . the coincidence of saints raise in the 90 strangely coincides with other schools not having 5th and 6th form.
I also have to agree that most kenya team players in any given kenya team in history have always been changez and patch players .Both schools have a very long history of playing rugby well before saints or anyother school.
i have also heard about that father cafrey in the 90’s including his plan to kick patch out of prescott in 1995.and how saints rugby has never been the same since he lwft the country . it make you wonder was saints rugby that good or was cafrey good in “hooking up” saints to wins.
personaly i would watch anyother game if it wasnt a lenana sch ,nairobi school affair thats just my opion !
December 26, 2006 at 9:05 pm
There we go with father Caffrey again. The only thing Caffrey hasn’t done yet is come on the pitch and make a try saving tackle on an opposing player.
I played for the 91-92 and we were all under 19 IB or not.
December 30, 2006 at 11:09 am
LOL!! This is just laughable. Saints and Kenya rugby do not go together.
Everyone… I mean everyone that matters in kenya rugby knows that its always been mean maroon, rva and patch machine that shaped what this new kids on the block think they know so well.
Growing up in a house with the likes of Chris Onsotti(RIP), spent my christmas having a few drinks with Martin Ndeda and seeing J.J Masiga go to class(med school) with my bro… this is not even a discussion.
learn some history vijana! http://www.kenyapage.net/rugby/reviews/rugby-review.html
December 30, 2006 at 4:33 pm
when you say patch what comes into your mind -RUGBY
when you say Changez what commes into your mind-RUGBY
When you say saints -PROBABLY EARINGS AND UHURU KENYATTA
i think that settles this debate
December 30, 2006 at 7:06 pm
That still does’nt give changes and patch more trophies than us.
December 31, 2006 at 9:16 pm
When you say patch what comes to your mind-CATTLE.
When you say changez what comes to your mind-MORE CATTLE
When you say SAINTS- Probably trophies and trophies and trophies……
January 2, 2007 at 8:23 pm
ok… joe and the rest who understand kenya school rugby, lets get back to our discussion.
i believe mean maroon is the greatest rugby school team of all time, followed by rva and patch machine in that order.
now, lets be objective. patch does not play good team rugby. patch has produced individual great players but not great teams, for example, the likes of edward rombo and chris onsotti.
other schools who’ve made an impact include: bush, mangu, njoro and katch… and maybe strath
wengine wote ni bure!!
as for the saints wannabeez… stats, stats, stats are useless. you are beginning to sound like those nfl commentators. case example david carr has one of the highest qb completion percentages in the nfl, but considered one of the most useless qbs… by texan fans…
point is… despite having won 3 straight superballs…NE patriots are still not considered a diambo team like the likes of cowboys.
its just the way things are… swallow the bitterness and accept that school rugby is an old boys club belonging to maroon, rva and patch.
a little more history:
http://www.kenyapage.net/letters/rombo.html
January 2, 2007 at 9:20 pm
To maroonie 12, Joe and all the player haters out there.
Let me begin by saying that I am sorry. I am sorry that for the longest Patch and Changez were the perenial losers to RVA. While RVA won most tournaments in there days Patch and Changez were fed on the scraps.
Saints Came along and Surpassed you guyz. If you tally our trophies its probably double yours. Now you can player hate all you want.
But nothing printed on this post is ever going to change the fact that we have won more trophies particularly the prestigious prescott cup more than you guyz.
Stats are the way sports acheivements are measured and ours speak for themselves, you brain scientists.
Secondly We do not need any approval from any Bitter Changerians or Patcherian player haters, Our Bulging trophy cabinet is all the approval we need
Lastly a Big Thanks to Easy and Cssp for quashing player haters all day long.
January 2, 2007 at 9:28 pm
Saintarian. All the haters are now begining to sound like jilted women trying to interrupt weddings at the 11th hour. The amount of hate we get for winning trophies will never end. You have to remember that when you are the BEST. Player haters will player hate.
Thanks
January 3, 2007 at 5:22 am
Apparently Maroonie 12 has not got the memo. Saints crashed the “old boys” Rugby Club and now own it.
Go Back to unearthing dinosaurs. That J.J Masiga was a good one.
January 3, 2007 at 5:29 pm
When changez had 6th form, we played and won at club level.
The only dinosaurs out there are aged IB zacks playing young morans… but thats no excuse, the young lads have proven by repeatedly hammering the wazee… reminding everyone that rugby is a game of wits, IQ et al. Tosha!
January 3, 2007 at 9:08 pm
Here we go with the broken record again AGE. If those changerians were so good How come they couldn’t win Prescott as many times.
We have already disproved those age theories anyway. But seeing you as are player hater. Whatever you need to convince your self so that you can sleep at night is Okay with me.
January 3, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Ahem! Morans. That explains why I always saw Cattle at Changez all the time. Don’t act like those Morans were the “regular Age”.
January 3, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Eric Shirley Shield
Prescott Cup
Christie Sevens – club level
Kenya National Rugby championship
Blackrock
KRFU Sevens
John Andrews Sevens
etc etc…
“Nihil Praeter Optimum”
Definitions:
Main Entry: mo·ron
Pronunciation: ‘mor-“än
Function: noun
Etymology: irregular from Greek mOros foolish, stupid
1. a very stupid person (likely to have gone to saints or another “gumbaru”)
2. a school for middle class kenyans who think they are rich .-keywords middleclass and think (joe et al.)
Main Entry: mo·ran
Pronunciation: ‘morän
Function: noun
Etymology: from the foothills of Ngong, E.A Rift Valley. Masaai, warrior
1. a brave young masaai warrior; example Laibon Lenana
2. a team that plays strong, sure and superior rugby; example mean maroon
The people rest.
January 4, 2007 at 4:31 am
Maroonie 12 your anorexic trophy collection does not impress us.
You might want to impress Joe though.
May be you can let him know this at you next player hater convention. Let me add another word for you. Imbecile. Patcherian and Changerian “regular age” player haters.
January 4, 2007 at 4:35 am
This Debate is getting abit lame for me. Lets just tally up the trophies and get it over with. Maroonie12 has compiled a list for Changez. Specify the the number of times and send it of to Hash. Our list has already been displayed unless there is some more in the past we don’t know about.
I am done with this.
January 8, 2007 at 11:33 am
MAROONIE WACHANA NA SAINTS WE KNOW ITS A PATCH CHANGEZ DEBATE -THE FACT THAT THEY PRODUCE MORE REFEREES THAN PLAYERS SETTLES THE ISSUE OF SAINTS
NOW MAROONIE TO YOU HAVE AN ANSWER FOR ROMBO,KIBE ,OLEWE ,FELIX OCHIENG. JJ MASIGA ETC
January 13, 2007 at 11:07 am
I’m surprised Rosslyn has even been mentioned in this discussion. Better yet, it’s been mentioned about 5 times.
Let me explain Rosslyn’s dilemma.
Number one, American’s are sissies. They’re so used to American Football, where excessive pads are worn. The thought of playing a sport like rugby at high school level (much less primary school) seemed appalling and was not even considered until the very late 90’s.
Number two, Rosslyn operated on the American school year, which meant they never had a full rugby season, because the school year finished before the season was over. So we only ever played friendlies against random teams.
Number three, there was a time in the late 90’s when we had a really good coach from New Zealand who knew what he was doing. We had some massive players who also happened to know what they were doing. But since then, we’ve had random people who really dont know what they’re doing who coach completely wrong. Our team is made up primarily of people who have never touched a rugby ball in their life until 9th grade. They have no idea what they’re doing.
And NOW, yes, we have that one principle who stands there straight faced telling people that the whole team has to wear scrum caps because its so much safer. BULL. He’s a fool and has not made a single good decision for the school since he arrived my senior year.
The rugby team gets no support. For the longest time they didnt even have uniforms. We just wore black t-shirts that we brought from home.
We have beaten Hillcrest, St. Chistophers and pretty much every other team we’ve played. Glad we never played lenana or saints, because we would have been obliterated. Never played RVA’s varsity either, which was a bit of a shame. I realize we would have lost, but ever since I was a boy at Cavina school, I had always wanted to play against the RVA varsity, mostly because I had mad respect for them.
I remember watching prescott finals when I was a kid. Saints and RVA. Couple of fights break out. Good fun.
January 15, 2007 at 5:23 am
When it comes to deciding which rugby playing high school in Kenya is the best, all time, there’s never a real consensus. In order to determine that, we need a complete record of match results in all [well, most relevant leagues and tourneys]. Is it even possible to consolidate all the records?
In my book, only four schools can stand tall, and [with statistical evidence] proclaim that they deserve that honor.
If you don’t already know who the finalists are, I will waste everyone’s time and list them.
1-Mean Maroon – Lenana School [Changez] formerly Duke of York
2-RVA – Rift Valley Academy
3-Saints – St. Mary’s – Saints
4-Patch – Nairobi School formerly Prince of Wales
Of course, most if not all from the above list will vote for their school [current of former] even without the proper stats because that’s what loyalty is plus during some periods it wasn’t so obvious who had the better record.
There were periods, however, when one or two schools in the elite four seemed to take home more trophies [consecutively] than the rest and the reasons for all that are as varied as the different teams who took to the field for those matches.
Not to dilute any of the many victories by Saints and RVA but it must be noted that the aforementioned squads received way way way more support from their administrations as opposed to the other two [Changez and Patch] and that did affect the quality of the squads that were fielded each year. Does the current Patch and Changez even have a coach? Those two teams were self-driven by passion and the desire to keep a school tradition alive and proved it over and over by pulverizing the more complete squads…coaching staff or not…now, that’s something.
Also, Saints, being a 6-year school, inherited a bunch of good players from Changez and Patch which was an added advantage but there was nothing unfair about that; you play where you study [or rather where you paid tuition – studying not compulsory].
All in all, it is a competition and once you enter you have to bring whatever you have and I must say it was great rugby.
As much as I love my almer mater, I have to say that the most successful Kenyan high school rugby team has been [all useless stats and excuses aside], RVA with Saints coming in second, Changez and then Patch, but that’s just me.
The stats can always be hammered and twisted to make one team look really good but all things considered, one has to respect RVA even though we blitzed them on so many occasions on our way to glory…
As for where my loyalties lie, I’m a Changez old boy and I was there when we had better days…with Ligale, Tano (RIP) and the rest of the Mean Maroon squad from 1991 thru 1994. Once a Changerian, always a Changerian and I wouldn’t trade it in for anything in the world. The truth is, we fielded some excellent teams, won our share of tourneys, produced our share of legends in their own right and we are the best as far as we know…the only thing is that the record shows otherwise.
Anyone who can compile a complete record of all the elite four schools i mentioned for side by side comparison is welcome to challenge my conclusion.
No useless NFL, NBA-like nonsense like “the only team to have won the title while it was raining, having lost their first home game, with a freshman on the team, injured full back, and a girl on the team…no crap like that…just wins and losses over as many years as possible [20 minimum] no matter what caused them.
The younger teams don’t count simply because they haven’t yet established a winning record.
Well…the trophy for best fans if there was one would be ours…Marooonie eeeeh!!! Marooonie aaaah!!!
January 16, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Very well said Mr. Griffin. I concur on pretty much everything you’ve said. A few notes on Saints:
1. Fr. Caffery was the best thing that happened to Saints rugby. He made it a priority in the School. That meant players could leave class early to go warm up for games; the term ended early when we won Prescott or Blackrock; He facilitated travel and clinics lead by coaches that played professional rugby in England etc. He did not fix games. Besides, how does one even go about doing that?
The rules in rugby are very straight forward: Take the ball and place it over the line to score a try. That’ll get you 5 points. Pass whenever you want as long as you pass behind you. Kick the ball over the big H and you get either 2 or 3 points. There’s not a lot of wiggle room in those rules.
2. While Saints did have the benefit of coaching clinics and the occassional pointers from Fr. Caffery, Saints coaching was, for the most part conducted by player coaches. In my day it was Robert Koech/Sancho (Sasha Ng’inja) from 1991-1993 and Paul Odera 1994 onwards (he actually coached Saints last year).
3. Prescott cup was the premier schools rugby league in the country and, as such, is the only relevant benchmark that can be used to measure performance. Every team mentioned in the above debate took part in the Prescott league. Saints took part in the league that mattered. Why take up your weekend participating in irrelevant competitions? We kept our eyes on the prize. Prescott cup is to Kenya Schools rugby what the NBA is to professional basketball.
4. To reiterate, Prescott cup is the premier schools rugby league in the country. This is where all top schools rugby players in the country met to match wits. The top dogs. The guys that didn’t whine about one or two players on the other team being a few months older than them. The guys that didn’t bitch about some schools having sausages for breakfast while others drank porriage. The premier league — where the only admission requirement was registration at a school and a passion for rugby. For all the others, those people who weren’t satisfied with these simple requirements, Damu Pevu was created to accomodate them. And yet the chose to remain in the Prescott cup because they knew to be called the best rugby team in the country, you had to win the only trophy that really mattered.
That said, I don’t think that we can really determine who the best team ever is/was as history is being written everyday e.g., which is the best NBA team that ever played? Celtics? Lakers? Bulls? That’s a tough question to answer. Best we can do is say who was THE team of a certain era. I can only speak to my day. RVA had the 80’s, Saints had the 90’s, and the other teams gave us a reason to practice.
January 18, 2007 at 2:50 am
T3, your closing lines pretty much sum up the entire argument. Changez and Patch [in my time, at least] were no pushovers when they took to the field against the perennial favorites [Saints and RVA] and the proof is in the trophy cabinets of the former and the empty spots in the latter. A sidenote to Changerians, Patch Machine was impossible to beat at their home ground, Twickenham, named for England’s home ground and the opposite was true at our home ground [again during my days at Lenana].
The elite four have always been obvious and to parrot what you said, T3, it’s quite difficult to make a definitive conclusion as to who IS the ALL TIME best squad w.r.t Kenyan high school rugby…it’s all relative and most readers of this blog would probably beg to differ and offer a sure winner – I have my own biases and realities to deal with too as a former Changerian.
I thoroughly enjoyed the inter-school matches, more so, when the Mean Maroon 1st 15 [or 1st 7 for that matter] prevailed over any of the other 3 elite teams’ squads because it was always a hard-earned victory and that kind of intense, passionate, rugby action wasn’t to be found anywhere else – move over club/varsity rugby. It was as almost as good as being a spectator in an international match [and by that, naturally, I mean between the kings on the world stage – the All Blacks, Wallabys, England, S. Africa, Fiji, W. Samoa etc etc].
I can’t say anything about fixing matches and influencing events to favor one team over the rest since I have no evidence but it is possible, no matter how complex or simple the rules and regs are. I recall one home game against Saints in 92 or 93, where the ref was a little too lenient on Saints and harsh on Changez. In short, we lost the match but went on to win Prescott. [I’m not sure, I’m getting old].
Bottom line, Prescott Cup IS the trophy to win [with John Andrews Sevens and Blackrock as other notable ones] and if your team is or was fortunate enough to vie for it, you knew that you were playing in the league of champions and there’s no greater privilege and honor than that. The ones who got to take the trophy home [even just once] know what I mean…player or loyal fan, present on the field, on the bleachers, in the dorm or at home waiting for results or whatever…it was quite a time and the glory was shared by all. I wonder if it’s been that good in the new millenium. [I haven’t attended a match in a long long long time].
As you suggested with the professional sports example, T3, it’s quite a task sifting through it all in an effort to find the best. One can’t be absolutely sure that the Lakers, Bulls, Pistons, Patriots, Yankees are the all time best, however, it’s pretty clear when each of those teams dominated their respective leagues and could be labeled the best [but only] in that particular period [and things do change, don’t they?].
If one were to attempt to put this matter to rest, once and for all, [pending revisions] at least there’s somewhere to start…with the four best 15 man squads to ever play for the top prize in Kenyan high school rugby – the much coveted Prescott Cup.
No team’s prescott glory has been a walk in that park because the othr teams “brought it on”! Mean Maroon forever!! And ever, ever – and ever, ever — and ever, ever 🙂
January 19, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Stewie_Griffin what kind of changerian has a name like yours.kijana you are just a clever saints guy pretending to be a changerian. if you are indeed a changerian you are probably one of those 4 k-club members or was it tree shade club members who never set foot on a rugby field. what an insult to the insitution of school rugby to claim that saints could feature anywhere .78 years of school rugby and you want to talk about saints dominating 6 years fielding over age players .your brief but seriously flowed analysis including your benchmark of just 20 years of starts is silly. do the math you said you were in changez in 1990’s thats almost 10 years ago are you claiming that we add just another 10 years to when you were in school to decide who are the best of the best .Your reasoning is not like a changerian .it is too flowed it betrays you for a saints player trying to hide as a changerian. who ever heard of a changerian in the 90 called stwie griffin . changerian like patcherian are people who are proud of their african names lopokoyit, onyango,ligale etc stewie griffin -kijana national school material is always imitated but never duplicated . your logic if you are a changerian is a disgrace to changerians world over
January 19, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Further to Stewie Griffins Suggestion I have decided to compile a side by side comparison of The top 4 prescott wins. Some of the yearscould be wrong. I am just going on memory, so please feel free to correct me.
RVA 80, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90 & 94
St. Mary’s 91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98,99, 04,05.
Changez 82, 93,00,01
Patch 02.
The statistics are consistent with Stewie Griffins Observations.
Atleast I know that there are honest Changerians out there.
As for the Age issue Edgar is talking about
1 – the Saints team always had a mixture of player from atleast 2nd form onwards.
2- If Age was such an advantage all Patch had to do is look for all the people in Patch over 20. I believe this would not be a big undertaking in a “National” School.
3- What was the age limit of prescott that all schools agreed to? I remember when saints won the prescott and the majority of players were in 3rd or 4th form and most of them featured in the Kenya U-19 schools team.
January 21, 2007 at 3:31 am
Thank you, Saintarian, for making my point.
I suppose the esteemed [not really] Mr. Owino [coupled with his cheap shots, and bad spelling], was-or still is-a star player on the Mean Maroon squad and all the lovely ladies around town just love him, while the guys want to be him, huh? Which Mean Maroon squad did you play for, sir?
As far as the legitimacy of my Changerian-ness, if you will, let’s leave that to the registration office. Like I said earlier, you belong where you pay your fees/tuition, therefore, even the 4K, Tennis, Chess, Science, Art and “Tree Shade” club student members are as Changerian as you and I, Mr. Owino. Whether they endured bone-crushing tackles, side stepped the entire Saints back line and dove in for a winning try or not, they still enjoyed the victories and suffered the defeats experienced by The Mean Maroon.
You, sir, are no more a Changerian than I am, and are no better an ambassador to the world than any other young man who ever donned the signature maroon blazer. You MAY have worn the Mean Maroon jersey, and MAY have played on a winning Maroon team, but it doesn’t give you the right to disrespect non-players. I will make no more assumptions about you being capped as a Mean Maroon first XV player since you haven’t confirmed or denied it.
Moving on, ladies and gents.
The record, for the most part, shows that for almost 30 years [1980-present] the battle for Prescott supremacy clearly belonged to the elite 4, the most dominant being RVA. Changez, Patch and Saints [in alphabetical order] were perennial and fierce rivals who took the trophy home many times leaving RVA and each other with voids on the record – no other four teams have made more appearances. Winning a trophy is the final and most lasting measure of a team’s performance and whether a win resulted from an interception or a lucky bounce, a win is a win and that makes RVA the winningest squad in the Prescott League history. All teams have experienced moments of glory whether it was defeating Saints and RVA at their home, subjugating Patch at [our] home or taking it all the way. We played better in numerous games but all it takes is a small mistake and it’s all over no matter how hot your team is. All the experience, skill, style, talent and even flamboyance must be translated into points or you lose and fade away into history.
I already pointed out that lame excuses and useless self-serving statistics shouldn’t be brought into the discussion and I’m truly ashamed that a Changerian is the one dragging them back in. Mr. Owino, you are making Changerians look like sore losers and I implore you to please cease and desist before anyone else sees this…ooops, too late!
Is that even your real name? Are you by any chance a rival Patcherian posing as a Changerian to make us look bad in front of…ahem…everyone?
Oh boy, the 20 year benchmark and Precott,,,
Mr. Owino, if you bothered to read and fully comprehend what I posited in my earlier posts, you would have noted that I insisted upon a 20 year MINIMUM to begin with, which means that there’s no restriction on how many years of rugby stats one may analyze if he/she so chooses. Furthermore, even a 20 year MAXIMUM is enough for one to include Prescott as part of the criteria-if not the only one-to be used as the measuring stick for determining who’s who in Kenyan high school rugby. If you can present evidence from the pre-Prescott era, please be my guest and try not let your unflinching loyalty to Lenana cloud what is clear to everyone else but you.
I’m using Prescott as a starting point to attempt to bring this matter to rest because it is the division 1 league, the premiership of rugby, where the best of the best slug it out. I didn’t declare Prescott and 20 years as a benchmark, you did that all by yourself.
You mentioned that we [Changez] have 78 years of rugby experience under our belts, did you know Patch have more and RVA have less “experience”? You need to learn today [once and for all] that experience and tradition are great factors, however, they alone don’t bring home the Prescott Cup or any other worthwhile victory or trophy; you have to sweat and bleed for it. Ask any of the winning teams from any year how they acquired that trophy and won those matches and I’m sure the last thing they’ll say is that they just sent a letter asking the other team to grant them a walk-over victory.
The successes of individual players from any squad [need I mention them?] reflect well on the schools where they nurtured their talent and sharpened their skills and Changez has demonstrated that we have no shortage of elite players. The truth of the matter is some elite players emerged from great teams that had it all [82, 93, 00, 01] and some rose from the great teams that never won [83-92, 94-99]…and some of our teams were just bad. We have to acknowledge that in order to improve and come back better…let’s not cling too much to past glory while others create their own legacy as we stand in awe of our past greatness. Nihil Praeter Optimum…as far as I’m concerned we are nothing but the best and you won’t catch me cheering for any other team no matter how badly Changez might be losing…
About my name, Stewie Griffin,…I won’t even go into that…you either get it or you don’t. Changerians have been embarrassed enough by you alone via that ridiculous and incoherent rebuttal you offered. Mr.Owino, Sir, my loyalties as a Changerian have never been in question, but your very sanity is now suspect for suggesting that my logic is ‘flowed”.
“They’re older than us”, “they are richer than us”, “that’s our star from last year”…. Would you all please let it go! It may have made a difference, but we had the choice to play like men or concede the matches like little girly men and I believe we chose the former and prevailed more than some of the time. I don’t hear LeBron James complaining about how much older the other NBA stars are because you know what? He’s to busy slam dunking over those guys. What about Kobe 10 years ago? How about 14 yr old, major league soccer prodigy Fred Adu?…You bring what you’ve got and you better believe it’s enough to dispatch your rivals or you’ve already taken the first step towards losing by “de-psyching” yourselves. Let’s just get over it or relegate ourselves to Damu Pevu [if is still exists] where we can most assuredly steamroll the lesser teams [who will still have some 21 and overs] and lift that trophy every season henceforth. Would that make you happy, Mr. Owino? I bet it would and you would still find something to whine about.
We are men & former champions in a league of champions, Mr. Owino, so lose that lacey pink dress, make sure you still have balls, wipe the lipstick off your face and say it with me, for better or worse, “MAROONIE EEEHH! MAROONIE AAAHH” …and, please…put a little more bass in that voice.
As far as I’m concerned, our 93 squad with Ligale, Tano [RIP], CD, Luvai, Mcharo, Gatei, Mbarine etc was the best to ever take the field even though we didn’t make an undefeated run like the 82…and this is certainly not true according the Saints, Patch, RVA players and fans of the same season…but it’s my truth and I was there unlike 82.
“Stewie Griffin”
Lenana School aka Changez aka Duke of York School
Class of 1994
If I had Oprah Winfrey’s or Bill Gates’ kind of cash flow, I would restore the entire 8 million+ square meters that Lenana proudly sits on and make sure that in addition to academic excellence etc, there would be a rugby program worthy of envy by the best in the world…
By the way, I’m possibly the worst rugby player ever but my passion for the game [from the bleachers] and loyalty for Mean Maroon shall never wane, but I won’t make any excuses for them when they fail to win…that’s just lame. I’d rather just congratulate the other team for getting lucky. 🙂
January 21, 2007 at 3:53 am
One more thing.
Changerians, I’m a little disappointed in myself for not being able to name the entire first XV Mean Maroon squad from our best season ever – 1993.
Can anyone name all of them by position?
Damn, they were good!
January 21, 2007 at 8:04 am
Stewie, I just got through reading your dissertation – that was quite a bit my friend! 🙂
One of the points you made was really good, “We played better in numerous games but all it takes is a small mistake and it’s all over no matter how hot your team is. ”
Since you remember 1993, you’ll note that we (RVA) played you in the finals and lost… However, we played Saints in the semis and won by 2 points. I have no problem stating that they were that Saints had better talent than our RVA squad – 1993 had some phenomenal athletes at both Saints and Lenana. They had some bad bounces, they made a few bad decisions, and we won. So, even though that was a game for the ages at RVA, the best team that year was neither us nor Saints, it was Changez.
In short, that was a good point. At least in those days, the one deciding factor on who was the “best” team was always decided by who took home Prescott.
January 21, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Outstanding!!! . Stewie-Griffin a Straight Up Changerian and Hash a distinguished RVA gentleman. I have to say its refreshing to see this debate take on a more positive spin. I am in agreement with you guyz prescott is the mother of all trophies. To be the best you have to beat the best.
Again a special thanx to Stewie Griffin for putting the Haters in Check.
January 21, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Stewie griffin is no changerian he is a saints pup pretending to be a real changerian.
and as for the age issue is “national school material was 20 years and over isnt it shameful that even after playing for patch or changez with those 20 years they still went on to play another 2 years for saints meaning saints by your account was fielding players aged 22 against younger patch players like myself who were colts aged 15 . i think we all agree that a 15 year old boarder can not compete with a 22 year old grown man who eats at home
January 21, 2007 at 5:39 pm
stewie one more thing i can name the entire changez team of 1993 and i have to say that is the only changez team i admired in my pre patch ,patch and post patch days .that said i will not blow the changez horn by singing the songs of your heros. i think everyone who played or watch presscott in 1993 agree patch and changez had the best teams
blackrock semi finals that year was settled by the toss of a coin after a draw in over time and a draw in converted penalties (both kickers sadly died while still in their prime CD and Amunga)
Hash can tell of the thumping he and his team mates received at twikenham that year it was a major thumping . after rva defence looked out our deadly winger “moonkid” mukasa .theo “the dancer ” was unleashed on blindside needless to say rva tears flowed and a new chear song dabbed after the famous rytheme is a dancer techno song was born”theo is a dancer he is a try maker”Not only did theo destroy the rva defence he made try’s under the centerpost dancing from the wing to the center. in 1993 the semi finals played at changez between patch and changez was the presccott finals . the rest was a formality. i wont even talk about saints that year .
But i do agree with stewie on one thing the product produced from the school speaks more volumes than the number of prescott wins. and with that i wont even go into naming patch players international and national its something i dont have to go into obonyo,felix ochieng ,olewe 1,2,3,eric stituma,kibe,masinga and i am just naming the players in my former house -naivasha.so ill just drop it
January 21, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Saints 9 Prescotts, Patch 1. Is all the volume I see.
January 21, 2007 at 7:10 pm
PS. Even in 1993 third place play off Saints beat Patch something awful I think the score was in the 50’s so patch was nowhere near second best. The second best team that year was RVA and quite rightly so coz history says they were in the Prescott finals.
January 21, 2007 at 7:19 pm
And by the way Joe(patch only 1 prescott win) your approval means nothing. If Hash of RVA(11 prescott cups) and Stewie_Griffin of Changez(4 prescott cups) respect us as worthy opponents I am happy all day long. Like I said before and I will keep saying age was never an issue it’s an excuse to try to explain your ineptness. And at this point I just don’t give a damn about that cheap shot. I just wish they awarded prescott cups for players in the Kenya team so that you guyz might get something and stop whining.
January 21, 2007 at 7:36 pm
In addition I think the currie cup in south africa should be won by the team with the most springboks. They got it all wrong according to joe’s method. The cheetahs should hand it over immideately
Joe don’t you get tired of being a player hater.
just deal with it. One word PROZAC. And yes you don’t have to be a delusional player hater to be a changerian.
Again Stewie_Griffin is a changerian of up standing character.
January 22, 2007 at 4:14 am
Thank you, kind sirs – [i.e. Hash, Saintarian, Eazy] and the rest of the members. Be warned, this one goes on forever.
Joe said:
[i]”Stewie griffin is no changerian he is a saints pup pretending to be a real changerian.”[/i]
Mr. Joe, can I call you Mr. Joe?…
I quoted your little annotation so you’d know what I’m referring to when I say this… Mr. Joe, in your own words, please humor me and tell me what constitutes a Changerian to you. So far, you and Mr. Owino, a Changerian, are unwilling to accept that I am a bonafide Lenana School old boy and I would very much like to hear why? Please, take your time, you don’t have to reply right away.
Also, while you’re at it, please add why I must only be a Saints guy masquerading as a Changez guy.
Joe also said:
[i]”and as for the age issue is “national school material was 20 years and over isnt it shameful that even after playing for patch or changez with those 20 years they still went on to play another 2 years for saints meaning saints by your account was fielding players aged 22 against younger patch players like myself who were colts aged 15 . i think we all agree that a 15 year old boarder can not compete with a 22 year old grown man who eats at home”[/i]
Ladies, I thought we were done with this age issue being the kryptonite that made Saints so “invincible-ISH”.
Why don’t we then apply that same “age” variable to the RVA formula for their unprecedented Prescott Cup success when they practically owned the 80s and were still a force to be reckoned with in the 90s and see if this equation will balance.
A question for Hash: What is the age of the average outgoing senior at RVA?
While we bite out fingernails in anticipation of that response, I will continue in a somewhat hyperbolic [maybe not] manner just to make my point. It’s all in good fun people.
1-We all know that Saints fielded some “fossils” as one guy put it and that it made a difference in their firing and stopping power…for crying out loud those “budas” were gigantic and couldn’t be stopped! I swear the entire team shaved twice a day! What could we, the little Lilliputians do? We cried, of course, we shed eternal tears that are yet to dry out. What else could we do? Put yourselves in our shoes, Saintarians, you would understand, I promise. 🙁
2-We also know that Saints and RVA are wealthier schools that received more support from their administrations unlike what Checkman and what’s-his-name did for Changez and Patch, respectively. Well, there’s enough blame to go around, all the way up to the government and it’s useless ministries. Moving on – They also enjoyed some serious amenities. Among them, the fully stocked gyms, staffed with personal trainers whose primary goal was to turn those softies into lean mean [Changez and Patch] breaking machines. They had a head coach, a scrum coach and a line coach. Let’s not forget the hot tubs, heated pools, hot showers, the keyword here is “hot”, ladies and gents. Life was just too sweet at RVA and Saints [where applicable]. Not fair, not fair…I think I’m going to cry. 🙁
3-We are aware of the delectable five course menu at the dining hall. I can’t be sure, but the student athletes probably had a training table where their dietary needs as rugby players were catered to accordingly. If they didn’t have their meals at school, they would get into their cool cars, drive home where they would find mom setting up a fine table with lots and lots of delights for their privileged palates…mm good!
4-There’s also the “import-export” of some our star players. Now that was just crooked of you, Saintarians! Damn all of you to the deepest, hottest circle of hell! It wasn’t enough that you had the wealth, the age and size advantage, the full support of your administration, the special athlete diet, even the hot babes…you just had to go and steal our star players too further adding insult to injury. That’s just so cruel; have you no decency? Do you have ice water running in your veins? Where’s the humanity? Whhyyyyy!!!!
Meanwhile, back at Changez and Patch…it was…
“Please sir, I want some more”
Only this time, there wasn’t a shortage of it – all-you-can-eat maro, maro and more maro…day in-day out, 7 days a week, breakfast, lunch and supper or is it dinner…naaah, we didn’t do dinner. We had nightmares about that stuff like those old horror flicks. I’m certain even all the way up in “heaven” at RVA and [Saintarians] at your cozy residences, you were familiar with our staple. I think I’ll make some this weekend just for nostalgia. 🙂
If you are reading this line, it means you have read and understood the 4 factors that shifted the balance when we as rugby rivals met on the field as 1st XV to first XV or as 1st VII to 1st VII to fight it out for Prescott, John Andrews and Blackrock supremacy.
I again wish to clarify that I was/am aware of it and it did make a difference, however, it was not illegal and we can’t continue to cling to that as a crutch every time we lose a match or tournament. It just serves to mentally weaken your players while they [Saints and RVA] keep hitting those weights and running those drills regardless, while you whine because they know you are a strong team and they will take no chances. If you field some skinny rabbles, like I was, you can only expect one thing.
The Saints and RVA rugby program was complemented by their passion, tradition and more fortunate circumstances while ours was left to passion and tradition alone and that’s just the way it is.
As for the Patch team, they were the greatest team [before 02] never to have won Prescott and they were like Holland in World Cup soccer. They had great teams, superb individual player skills but they always had near misses. In short, I respect Patch, always did.
I haven’t said any of the above to undermine the victories that Saints and RVA won over worthy opponents like us and Patch, I just wanted everyone to see it from the other side. I also don’t subscribe to the opinion that Saints and RVA only ever won because of the above reasons albeit somewhat exaggerated for full effect.
I’m not the most popular Changerian right now but I will say one more thing to further “agitate the calm”…It was before my time but wasn’t there a time in Changez/Patch history when outgoing seniors were “bom sitas” i.e. 6th formers, as opposed to the current situation? This would mean that they were on average 20+ if they were fielded as part of the squad, right? I suppose now a counterpoint would still include the other 3 reasons and conveniently omit the one concerning age, huh?
Anyway, this entry was primarily meant to inject some humor into this discussion and I hope I didn’t offend too much.
Changez’ Mean Maroon has fielded some of the greatest teams there ever were and is a top tier rugby playing institution. Let’s celebrate our greatness [because we are] without raining on Saints’ and RVA’s parade because during a certain final game match-up they had had a full English-style breakfast and we didn’t.
I’m still waiting for somebody to help me with the names of the 1993 Mean Maroon squad. If there’s such a thing as rugby gods, then those guys are demi-gods in my book. We had assembled countless winning squads but that year, the planets were in perfect alignment, the rugby universe was in perfect sync and we were at the center of it. What we had was better than kryptonite and when we looked down upon the masses, their heads were bowed with their knees to the ground in recognition of our greatness. I just thought I’d exercise my bragging rights a little bit… 🙂
Mean Maroon forever!
January 22, 2007 at 4:19 am
Stewie I think Joe is another dude who needs to lose his lacy pink dress.
January 22, 2007 at 10:59 am
Stewie Griffin,
Finally, a grown man we can have a meaningful and respectable conversation with. I respect somebody who can give credit where credit is due no matter how painful. Your arguments are cogent; I may not agree with all you say because I’m a Saint through and through, but you have some valid points.
Let me just add that Mr.Owino and Mr. Joe are of the same ilk (patch sods with obvious reading, writing and comprehension disabilities, thus they lack reasoning acumen). Mr Owino is not a changerian, (if you read his first post here he is a patcherian) so his vehement denial of your identity as a changerian makes me wonder where his loyalties really lie and why he would give a damn who you really are. They want to hijack this debate and make it a patch-changes affair when anybody who played/watched/followed/ rugby in Kenya knows that you can’t in all fairness talk about Kenyan school boy rugby without mentioning Saints and RVA. This ‘dynamic’ duo are obviously wowed by your pragmatism and hence question your identity. I would suggest you ignore them, because like I have said before people with fallacious arguments ( like Joe and Co.) are not worth anybody’s time.
January 22, 2007 at 6:33 pm
saints guys must be crazy .the day you hear a patch man saying that saints rugby is better than patch rugby is the day hell freezes over .it just wont happen.someone said that the patch anthem was the best anthem sang with feeling and by the whole school .i think i will end my contributions here by saying
patchie kipenzi changu
mimi nimeapa
milele na milele
nitakufa na wewe
patchi kipenzi
hakuna mwingine duniani
patchie kipenzi hakuna mwingine duniani
Even if it comes to a choice between patch machine and all blacks .i will be in the patch corner And so will be the thousands of patcherians .Patch is rugby, was rugby and will always be rugby
No Rugbyl No School
keep the faith maybe one day we could all feel the same about kenya team
January 22, 2007 at 7:41 pm
“Patchie washenzi hakuna wengine kama nyinyi” x2
January 22, 2007 at 8:54 pm
We don’t need any patcherians to say that saints rugby is better. I think the number of times St. Mary’s is engraved on the prescott cup says that.
January 23, 2007 at 12:51 am
there really isnt much of a debate here coz mean maroon was,is and forever will be be the meanest rugby playing machine on this kenya.we are damn good that refs are out to get us.
yes im talking bout you loud mouth refs you were heard.
and as for RVA and SAINTZ both of you need to start your own supplement filled steroid driven league.how the hell do you put 20sth year old to play aganist high school men bred on ugali githeri etc and we still woop your sorry asses.the gamez to watch are changez vs patch ud think is clubz playin
as for patch your kick and run game is well played out all y’all need to come up with another plan.
but you do give us a run for our money must admit tho you keep us on our feet but whatever may come we are always on top.
and as for saints who say prescott is tha nba of rugby you got it al wrong you jus making excuses for not playing impala floodlights which is the most prestigious cup in school rugby.
January 23, 2007 at 9:11 am
Saints cant play in floodlights . why
1 they are too busy preparing for their mary poppins musicals
2.the cant stand the heat of competing in sudden death rugby everyweekend
3the steroids they take wont have kicked in that ealy in the year
4it is too early in the year and their recruiting program has not admitted rugby stars from other schools yet
5.the saints era of rugby is over but they cant admit it
6 patch and changez have already established a tradition of playing at floodlights finals and they cant stand a chance
January 23, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Go to http://www.alumnimart.com and click on Rugby Championship on the side Navigation bar
to see “a complete” record of high school rugby championships and judge who is the best. While you are there you may show your school pride by grabing your school gear.
As the records will show ….. the Meanest is Maroon and the brightes is the Rose.
January 23, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Alumni mart has the hottest rugby gear.
January 23, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Owino you can actually get Mary Poppins role in that lacy pink dress.
January 23, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Okay, I thought that AlumniMart thing was spam at first, but went ahead and clicked on the link and it appears legit. That’s great that you can buy all the old Kenya schools rugby jerseys…
EXCEPT FOR RVA!!!
I quote: “Note: RVA has been intentionally left out of the big-4 because of uncertain demand…”
First, there is no “Big 4” without RVA. Second, refer to the first point.
Okay, it just so happens that I head up the RVA Alumni site here in the US. I can tell you that there would be strong demand for such an item, and that I would be glad to promote it on the RVA Alumni Website. We already sell t-shirts and stuff, but I’ve grown lazy about putting together a rugby shirt, even though people have asked. If you were to do it, I’m sure that you’d be able to sell a number of them.
Tell them to get in touch with me for a school logo and the jersey colors. Now I’m going to bed all pissed off because of this.
(not really, only slightly peeved…)
January 24, 2007 at 12:09 am
Alumnimart great concept. You can complete your Prescott championship record by noting:
RVA vs Saints in 1994: Champions RVA
Saints vs RVA in 1995: Champions Saints
Saints vs Hillcrest in 1996 : Champions Saints
Saints not Lenana WON Prescott in 1997; Saints vs Lenana.
Saints vs. RVA in 1998: Champions Saints
Saints vs Lenana in 1999: Champions Saints
Saints vs Nairobi in 2004: Champions Saints
Saints vs Mangu in 2005: Champions Saints
If you want Blackrock:
Saints 1994 to 1999 and 2004, 2005…sorry don’t remember the finalists.
Cheers.
January 24, 2007 at 12:13 am
Blackrock 2006 was RVA. Can’t remember who they played, might have been Nairobi School (?)
January 24, 2007 at 12:27 am
It was Saints.
January 24, 2007 at 2:48 am
I can’t believe I’ve been donning international rugby jerseys all this time while I could have [also] been wearing a bona fide Mean Maroon jersey!
I’m acquiring one right away! …plus the mug, tee and hat…oh wait, there isn’t one YET!
Ladies, [you know who you are] don’t get your panties in a bunch if I’m wrong about the following info about VIIs. It’s for the Alumnimart .com results tables. Changerians, How about we complete the John Andrews section ?
John Andrews VIIs Cup
1991-Lenana (?)
1992-RVA [against Lenana] I saw it happen and every so often I have flashbacks…aaahhh
1993-Lenana
1994-Lenana
I’m a little [actually, very] disturbed that there’s no official Lenana website, where such info could be easily consolidated, given the number of Changerians online and with access to the data. Of course, there’s The Yorkist and there once was Laibon.com, which was pretty decent, but it all that’s gone now; wtf? 🙁
I might have to build a killer site from scratch if it doesn’t happen soon…
I simply can’t wait to order my jersey and if it doesn’t fit I’ll just place it next to my other Lenana regalia].
January 24, 2007 at 4:34 am
Alumni mart don’t forget. Prescott 91 &92 Saints vs Rva on both occasions. Saints winners on both occasion.
Also saints won 93 Blackrock in addition to the years my comrade Cssp has mentioned.
January 24, 2007 at 9:24 am
RVA was in every finals but one (1991) from ’83 to ’94, winning 9 times. That is quite an unprecedented run of quality rugby. It must be noted (since i was on the ’93 team) that 1993 would also have been won by RVA had not Saints taken everything out of that squad. RVA exacted revenge in the Semi’s against Saints for Saints beating RVA in the finals the year before on a shameless blocked drop-kick.
These days RVA has fallen off the map. There is even dissention between us alumni and the school these days because the rugby quality is so poor. It is only fun to return and play in the alumni games at rift and beat those teenies down haaaard who think they can play. Us old men can still chinga them easily.
January 24, 2007 at 9:25 am
To be noted: after beating Saints in the semi’s in ’93, we had nothing left against Lenana in the finals…
January 24, 2007 at 9:56 am
Hi guys,
Thanks for your feed back, I will update my records as soon as possible. I am still working to complete online credit card processing, however if you need a jersey ASAP, you may call me or send an email. I will also have the jerseys available in San Diego during the USA sevens
January 24, 2007 at 10:17 am
Well in. We’ll see you in San Diego.
January 24, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Swoosh, ..”after beating Saints in the semi’s in ‘93, we had nothing left against Lenana in the finals” …… that is where conditioning come it to play. Same to us, after beating patch we had nothing left and you know how brutal Patch/changez game is but we still had to pull it out.
January 24, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Swoosh, no excuses here. Lenana beat us fair and square in that game. The only positive thing I can remember from that game is that we still were in the head of that Changez kicker. He was great against everyone but Rift, then he choked. It was that damn line that got us – Ligale was a freaking nightmare.
January 25, 2007 at 9:53 am
eh, I must admit the truth; we were beaten fairly and handily. But can we arrange a rematch these days..?
January 27, 2007 at 4:14 am
Too bad I missed that ’93 finals match. The Lenana administration sucked [I bet they still do when it comes to such matters] and wouldn’t let us attend the match down the road! Being a good boy, I naturally stayed “home”… &%$#*@$^!!!!
January 30, 2007 at 7:01 am
How interesting that changerians forget to say that patch won the first john andrews tournament and in 1995 patch won john adrews . i am also shocked that in area where ??? appear it was patch that actually was in tose finals come on guys give credit where credit is due . plus in 1986 patch won all tournaments apart from the presscot finals so wpeople stop cooking up stories and correct the board ,
otherwise those shirts are too deadly .can i get one that saus nairobi school rugby instead of patch rugby
January 31, 2007 at 8:39 am
changez is nothing but the best. blackrock 2002 patch do you remember!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 31, 2007 at 11:18 am
Joe,
It is not that I am not giving Patch credit, I just don’t have the info to put on those ??? slots. I will update the chart and if you have any more information I will gladly post it. On the jersey, I have several patcharains ask the same thing, therefore, I have changed the wording to read Nairobi School Rugby in front and Patch Machine on the back….. by the way you can now Purchase online
January 31, 2007 at 11:21 am
O’G 02,
“changez is nothing but the best. blackrock 2002 patch do you remember!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ”
…. so did Changaz win blackrock in 2002 or what?
February 1, 2007 at 3:07 am
Ooops, my bad…I forgot to mention that Patch won the inaugural John Andrews Cup tournament and again in 1995.
I don’t know the entire record of John Andrews results [except the ones I attended]. I guess no one else here knows the entire roll of finalists and champions either… oh well.
As part of the so-called “Big 4”, we’ve all made it to the finals at some point or other and lost [some more than others] and it feels good [not really]…Still, in the record books, it boosts your ratings, however, winning is just much, much, much better in general.
No credit has been denied to any team for making the final, winning or almost winning. With regard to our [Mean Maroon] winning squads and individual heroes, we aren’t afraid to sing their praises while leaving others to do the same for theirs.
BTW, Alumnimart.com, what does the back of the Lenana classic jersey say, if anything?
February 1, 2007 at 3:32 am
Hmmm…how many rugby tournaments/leagues were there in 1986 for high schoolers?
Certainly, there was Prescott and John Andrews…[I wasn’t interested in rugby then] …what else?
February 2, 2007 at 10:29 am
ops swoosh i forgot since you were in the 93 team have you forgotten the hiding you got at twikenham that year !i think changez when into your final more tired physically and mentally after play patch that year .incidentally the only patch player who never got a school color for rugby on the 1st xv.was the eigthman-felix ochieng”totie’ who went on to captain kenya team in both 15 and sevens.as well as play in two rugby 7seven world cups not to mention various caps at different irb tournaments .
February 2, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Joe, we could argue all day long about who was more tired that day. Just know that each of those semi-final games were equally huge. That was one of Saints best teams (ever) that we beat that day. After losing to them 2 years in a row in the Prescott finals, believe me it was a massive mental hurdle that we faced and overcame as well.
The fact is, all 4 of the big teams were incredibly talented that year, which made for a lot of competition and swapping of wins and losses throughout the season.
February 5, 2007 at 9:36 am
steve spot on .this debate is getting old . how about a post on the pathetic state of kenyan rugby .kenyan schools i believe can compete at par with other rugby schools worldwide but our national team is messed up.
The disconnect between schools 15’s and national 15 is huge, there is too much emphasis on 7s at the national level .Sadly sevens rugby does not developed the full potential and skill that a rugby nation needs. Countries that have first developed 15s have reaped the reward of having both great sevens players and 15s teams. Kenya on the other hand wants to do things backwards sadly one can not develop the state of 15s rugby by concentrating in on sevens. (Poor performances by pacific islanders who have over 100 years of rugby playing history is a good example of too much emphasis on 7s).The problem with Kenyan rugby is too much show biz and little emphasis on developing less the game .
One only needs to attend a safari sevens tournament to see the funfair that Kenyan rugby is all about .Contrast that with rugby in New Zealand, Australia or even South Africa. Sadly KRFU has fallen into the trap of being caught up in funfair instead of strategizing on the long term growth of Kenyan rugby. Mismanagement and lark of vision by former rugby has-beens is what KRFU is all about
The decline of soccer in Kenya and the continued ban by FIFA presents a perfect opportunity for explosive growth in Kenyan rugby. But KRFU are too busy planning the next sevens event, will be a Bamboo concert or a Mercy Myra concert. Despite the hype generated at this sevens events Kenya still ranks very poorly when it comes to even sevens rugby .We face defeat from university teams and boast of attendance by minnows such as the Emerging Springboks. Gone are the days when anybody at KRFU remembers that British lions once toured Kenya and Kenya was invited to tour South Africa. Countries such as war torn Ivory Coast and morocco have better records and playing standards. What’s more their RFU’s have worked with less funding, less public awareness but are able to created incredible opportunities that have seen club teams in those nations turn out more professionals than we could ever see. Our proximity to south Africa (a country with one of the best national leagues should be exploited .KRFU needs to do more -to open channels through which Kenyan players can get an opportunity to play in South Africa, Anyway I have a long list of complaints but what do you guys think we need to do as Kenyans to improve the 15s game .I don’t mean to be harsh but de-linking the current culture of rugby and showbiz to me is the first step. Let people come to watch rugby later they can go have fun. Instilling discipline in club players would also go along way.
February 18, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Joe….Patch did not win all the trophies in 86 and were not in the Prescott Finals. There were no finals in those days & Patch finisihed 3rd that year. More importantly they won 1 of the 4 trophies not 3.
The following were the 4 tournaments listed in the order of completion.
RFUEA : Patch
John Andrews : Changez
Blackrock : RVA
Prescott : RVA
**86 was the year Rombo was Captain and this was a major disappointment to Patcherians because we were expecting alot more that year with him as Captain**
You might be thinking of1987 or 1989…that year we won all the 3 tournaments and came 2nd in Prescott. 1987 was Said’s (Koppa) year and 1989 was Kibe’s.
However painful it is to say this the truth is this feat was 1st accomplished by our bitter rivals Changez in 1985 under the Captainship of one of the best scrum half’s Kenya has ever produced (that year he actually played stand off and a fellow by the name of Patrick Kettienya played scrum half )the great J.C Wahku (RIP) who went on to star for Mean Machine & Kenya.
March 10, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Njoro Boys (School of Men) from 91-96 ya’ll know that we had everybody worried esp. 95 when we were the only high school to ever played in Great RiftVally 10 Aside and to make the matter whose we still hold the record for the fasted touch down again Nondiescripe, c’on ya’ll give credit were its due, then in 94 final against saints in BlackRock which we could have won but the ref. started givin favour to the saints the last min. We won 2 years in a row National 92-93 beatin Nairobi and Lenana .Sammy Kakame was no match to Lemmy in 91-92, alafu we had the best pack and line for 4 years meza nobody was willin to plays but we were happy to play ya’ll and the clubs to HOLLA BACK RED MANAGU
March 29, 2007 at 10:18 am
Story by ERIC ODANGA
Publication Date: 3/26/2007
National team rugby coach Benjamin Ayimba and several national team players were at Lenana School yesterday to spot and encourage new talent during the Nairobi Secondary Schools Sports Association provincial finals.
Ayimba was impressed with the skills at this level. The players at Lenana were Biko Adema, Ted Omondi, Philip Moturi, Ben Nyambu, Peter Ocholla and Yousufa Faye.
Nairobi School defeated Lenana 7-0 to qualify for the national championship, to be staged in Eldoret. They beat Upper Hill 14-0 in the semi-finals while Lenana upset last year’s champions St. Mary’s 14-10 in the other semis.
Results. Rugby. St Mary’s 24 Dagoretti 7, Nairobi School 40 Aga Khan High 0, Ofafa Jericho 0 Dagoretti High 28, Strathmore School 34 Aga Khan High 0, Nairobi School 21 Strathmore 7, St Mary’s 40 Ofafa Jericho 0, Upper Hill 29 Jamhuri 0, Highway 22 Jamhuri 7, Upper Hill 28 Highway 7, Moi Forces Academy 0 Lenana 7. Quarter finals: St. Mary’s 19 Strathmore 7, Nairobi School 31 Dagoretti 12, Upper Hill 14 Moi Forces Academy 5, Lenana 38 Highway 5; Semis: Upper Hill 0 Nairobi School 14, St. Mary’s 10 Lenana 14; Final: Nairobi School 7 Lenana 0
March 30, 2007 at 9:39 am
the year 2002 was a great success for changez rugby under the captaincy of O’G. Though we only won the much coveted cup blackrock, we managed to reach the finals of all the other matches. the squad comprised of: 1.dj 2. wyno 3.hirum 4.dezi(now @ machine) 5.sagz(quins)6.kagota 7. capt. o’g 8.kiprop(machine) 9. warui(usiu) 10. ocholla(impala) 11. mukopi(machine) 12. ridho 13.jerry 14.kuria 15.ashioya(quins). coach: mitch ocholla, assistant coach: wamanga. viva maroon. REST IN PEACE ANDREW NAMASAKA(NAMA) MAROON CAPTAIN 2000
April 1, 2007 at 10:56 pm
What happened to u kakamega,where is the legacy that we left.Winning team of National school sevens 2001
April 5, 2007 at 4:11 am
I stumbled across your blog via a random blog I was reading.
Anyhoo, reading this post brought back a lot of memories. My brother used to play for the Nairobi School team so I have to say to me, they were the best. But like you said, St. Mary’s and Lenana were really good too.
April 5, 2007 at 7:27 am
I want to correct something well st marys yala is not the only team having scored 100+ in some nationals in the history of school rudge…. chuka high school felt the wreath against Kakamega high school in nationals 2000 126 nil we went ahead and won the trophy.
April 6, 2007 at 7:59 pm
1993 team (Prescott CHamps, John Andrews Champs)
1 – Byron Otieno
2 – Jimmy karimi
3 – Muniafu (Moon)
4 – Ariba Olembo (Ariba)
5 – Nicholas Macharia (Mache)
6 – Jeff Ngwabe (Fox)
7 – Felix Gichaga (Shaggy)
8 – Russel Odour (Russ)
9 – Tony ‘Barine (Brio)
10 – DonaldOnyango (C.D)
11 – Ben Opiyo (Felix Gichaga) BANO
12 – Joesph Mcharo (Jose)
13 – Eugene Ligale (Genis/Indash)
14 – Cyprian Okwuomi(Kwamse)/ Abuya Tamaro (Anti-Kimbo)
15 – Nicholas Gatei (Cyprian Okuomi)
May 5, 2007 at 5:50 am
kwani whats with you;patch,saints,changez,rva
maze mangu 06prescott champs,no.2natios,eastafrican champs,07floodiez champs are the hottest team in high school rugby right now.saints.rva,changez used to be good but right now they cant match the impressive and entertaining rugby played by MANGU
and this is why we are hot and thats why u aint.Watch out 4 mangu during nationals and prescott
May 10, 2007 at 3:46 am
played for mangu in 02/03 and given the suport some of these schools are given, i think its a shame they even dare brag about any of their achievements. Achievement is going to the nationals in the early 90’s and only fielding 13 players coz frankly there were’nt enough kits and not letting that pull us down, achieving what we have so far without ever having seen a coach, half a team skiving schooll to play for the same same school or playing with the same same kit for 4years coz the school wont agree to buy other.
we have achieved all that we have with all those impediments. i dare you to give mangu half the support some of these rugby relics schools get and they’ll bring to kenya the super 12 trophy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 10, 2007 at 3:49 am
nearly fogot!!! WAZIMBA EEEEEEEEEEEhhhhhhhh WAZIMBA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhh
May 16, 2007 at 1:09 pm
RVA just won blackrock this year again. 2007. thats two years in a row now!!!
May 22, 2007 at 11:17 pm
NIHIL PRAETER OPTIMUM.nothing but the best.as i put it nothing but the finest.i have watched the CHANGEZ team play and God knows if there is any reason that they shud loose its usually ment to be.in the sence that.NOT EVERYDAY IS A SUNDAY. …BUT IN THE MEANTIME WE PUSH SUNDAYS ALL THE WAY TO THURSDAY…take two days for other lame teams to shine before we claim back our spot.
CHANGEZ MAROONI…WE WILL WIN.
May 26, 2007 at 11:57 pm
STRANGE FELLOWS…I saw saw REAL rugby played against RVA as a first former 1973 at CHANGES and was awed.
If we had taken cue from these chaps, Kenya would have had a professional league by now.
RVA was not RUGBY PLAYED but RUGBY EXPERIENCED…and the girls? Remember them..the Limos parked with parents and staff members…????
Why DEBATE amatuer trophies when we all seem to have missed the boat to raise the game to a descant of professional aptitude?
I conceed D. of Wales, D. of York and RVA pioneered the game, but please, chaps of the later years, please, please, continue these arguments only with an eye of putting up a Kenyan Rugby Museum. You seem to have a lot of gratis, fun, passion and material here..
And say, ISNT IT TRUE THAT THE 1977 ERIC SHIRLEY SHIELD that LENANA won was a statement of the classic game the school played given opponent WESTERN KENYA players like OMAIDO WALTER..God bless….were ex-Changerians??????? Has it occured to you then that Lenana 1977 was actually in a final against Lenana ex-1977!!!
And isn’t true that every PATCH Vs MAROONs DERBY was effectively an ex- Nairobi primary reunion clash..no wonder there was such rivally among the student fans than the fiasco that always tainted the grass at Sterling’s LENANA pitch….
Last who coached these new’comers into rugby tradition… can the SON claim to be greater ‘ now’ great than the FATHER??
But to answer the question, which among them played the best game…well, in my CHANGES days 1973 – 78, the most feared outfit in the compound was RVA…and we’d beat them..WE – and prejudice by my witness – must have been RVA’s classical nemesis..WE WERE CERTAINLY THE BEST as per motto, NIHIL PRAETOR OPTIMUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ah young chaps, cheers all the same for reminding me of GLORIOUS moments that you’ll soon learn do not exist outside school bounds…
KUDOS
May 27, 2007 at 12:05 am
Sorry, use this url link.
June 18, 2007 at 1:03 am
More info:
Prescott Runners up:
2003: Lenana School
2004: Nairobi school
2005: Mangu High School
2006: Alliance High school (Yes Mangu were the winners)
2007 Blackrock winners: RVA. They beat Strath in the final.
Saints lost to strath in the semifinals 3-0.
June 27, 2007 at 4:05 am
My two cents is not really a comparison of whose is bigger…more reminiscing about the past and how reaadign this blog made my day. I played in the championship team in Saints V RVA in 1991. And we made history in many ways especially winning prescott from RVA who had held the cup for longer than is legal… I left strathmore after KCSE and was in IB with played with the likes of Ndiri, Ogre, Shasha as well as Paul Odera who I played with in the Saints Second team..so yes I saw the budding talent of Paul Odera…. people complain that a bulk of this team was filled with aged people but most of us had just either finished 4th form or were in 4th Form…. amazing names like Ndiri, Ogre, Kwame, Sasha..+sigh+… the first time Prescott finals was held at the Harlequins ground…memories memories… we were a team filled with the conviction of winning and thats what we did exactly…
Just the other day I was chatting to my good friend who is born and bred and has died for the Maroon Jersey…different generation of players and it was never about who was better but more a celebration of how commited we are to high school rugby and how this passion could possible translate to the national senior level…. for thos of you who have played school rugby…and then played rugby at different levels, overseas, in Kenya… you must agree the most fun, the most passionate times were being in high school..to me that’s the best rugby I’ve ever played!
June 28, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Hey, i just stumbled upon this site and was absolutely shocked to see the words REST IN PEACE next to ANDREW NAMASAKA’S name!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Does anyone know what happened to him?????
We were good friends but lost touch.
July 1, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Patch Machine are the Prescott 2007 champions after scoring a last minute try against Mangu!
Final score 24-26.
July 2, 2007 at 7:20 am
Mangu must be rather upset. I remember Saints doing this to me in the Prescott finals in ’92. It’s such a heartbreaker losing on a last minute try…
July 2, 2007 at 8:16 am
Patch Machine 2007 has had one of the most successful seasons in recent times! Won Uttermost Cup, John Andrews, third at Floodies, Provincial champs (7s and 15s), second at Nationals (7s and 15s) and winners of Prescott for the second time in 15 years. Now who can match that?!
July 3, 2007 at 6:46 am
**********STOP THE PRESS***************
PATCH 2007 PRESCOTT CHAMPS after massive defeat against saint marys in the semi finals Patch machine went on to thrash mangu .
******************************************
July 3, 2007 at 7:04 am
And just for all the saints boys who have been singing that saints is all that . Saints lost a record 6 Times to patch this season .6 times if that is not out classed and out matched i dont know what is .Lenana had a bad season but managed one victory over patch so hongera changez rugby has always had my support but patch kipenzi changu ,milele na milele.
Saints Rugby 1990-1996
RIP
July 3, 2007 at 11:46 am
Don’t get your panties in a twist. You have only won you 2nd prescott cup in your pathetic rugby history.
July 3, 2007 at 12:01 pm
P.s Alumni mart.com Saints 9 prescotts patch 2
July 4, 2007 at 2:39 pm
how long will saints continue claiming they are the best by boasting of the number of wins .i support joe 100% saints rugby 1990-1996.
lets talk about this century .2000-2007 how many times has saints won prescott.-zero. how many times has saints been in the finals?Saints rugby is as dead as a dodo. patch may have won only two times but they have appeared in more finals than saints and that is consistancy.
some people keep on saying we cant live in the past when it comes to lenana and patch history but yet this century their team has done nothing .Even with aged players saints cant win any trophys because other school have adjusted their game to compensate for the age difference . the saint reign occured when moi eliminated 844.saints then went to dominate but other school have now increased their technical side of the game and saints age isnt working any more
so if saints is so good why havent they won presscott this century when was the last time saints won prescott or appeared in a final. talking about the 90′ is like a patcherian talking about the 60’s saint rugby is dead i agree
July 4, 2007 at 7:19 pm
Are you kidding me?
This Zani Nyambura is the same person as, you know who.
And this wouldn’t be the first time either.
Anyway are you illiterate or just plain blind?
If you went to the website I mentioned before you wouldn’t be asking the same lame questions you have been asking through out this thread using your other alter ego’s . For your info, (because you have issues in reading and comprehension,) Saint’s won prescott 2004 & 2005 seasons that is two just this century.
As for the number of appearences in finals please refer to alumnimart.com put on your glasses or open your eyes and read.
Like I said before. Don’t get your knickers in a bunch.
Yes patch have won this year and congrats to that team.
But that ain’t sh@#T. You still have to win for 7 more years to catch up with us. Retards.
Saints-4-life
July 5, 2007 at 5:14 pm
lets be honest here so saints have won prescott 2 times this century .ok and how many times has lenana won 2 times ,mangu -2times ,nairobi school 2 times . most appearances in finals this century mangu/nairobiand lenana.
if we are to dismiss nairobi schoools wins in the 50s-60’s and lenanas 60’s-70s RVAs 80’s then its only fair we dismiss saints 90’s and consider the present .
the facts dont lie saints rugby is dead there needs to be an argent appeal to revive by we the old boys to resurrect our dead rugby
July 5, 2007 at 7:50 pm
So now you have ressurrected yourself as a saint.
I suppose you are now going to say we just disregard all wins and just have patch 07 win.
If we use this argument then everybody’s rugby is dead.
Saints rugby has and will always be alive. Just coz we have couple of dry seasons doesn’t mean jack.
The fact that you keep changing your name just proves you are talking through your Arse.
July 6, 2007 at 3:31 am
Good point. Which saint ever said “argent”?
Lets just point that Patch has only 2 prescott wins. Patch won nothing in the 50’s absolutely NATHAN. No proof of any wins, all we know is that they existed.
Don’t try to compare saints recent history with patch pre-historic ( I mean colonial) history when mainly Odieros went to patch. Patch is now a national school pulling miros from the lakeshores and every where.
All relevant kenyan rugby history has been tabulated at alumnimart.com. And what you see is what you get.
Joe (and his alter egos) has his panties in a bunch. And who can blame him. They have just secured their second significant win in their entire history. You can imagine how much noise they will now make when they made all that previous noise on 1 prescott win.
July 6, 2007 at 2:29 pm
“Joe (and his alter egos) has his panties in a bunch” Dude everytime someone speaks you rush to claim its my alter ego.kijana listen to what people are saying andstop dragging my name all over the place .yes patch 07 won prescott but the fact that they defeated saints 6 times in one season is a record that even you should be ashamed of .No other school in the top four has been rubbed like that by another top 4.so if patch rugby is wack what does that say about saints. this thing is getting old stop dragging my name to cover up your shame
July 6, 2007 at 2:38 pm
NAIROBI SCHOOL DETHRONE MANG’U IN PRESCOTT
June 3, 2007
The wait is over for Nairobi School as they defeated Mang’u High School 26-24 to reclaim the Prescott Cup trophy after a five-year wait. A try by Joseph Mokebo with only a few seconds of regulation time left dashed the hopes of Mang’u and saw the return of the trophy to Nairobi after two years. Mokebo tore through the Mang’u backline and evaded feeble tackles to win the cup for Nairobi School. Joel Maingi, the Nairobi School captain said their resilience and determination won the day against a very well-organised Mang’u side who were unstoppable whenever they started mauling. “We were scared of their mauls and opted for a running game,†he admitted.
The mauls by Mang’u produced two tries. Denis Karani and Mathew Musalia were the architects of the fearsome Mang’u forwards while fly-half John Mwangi kept the Nairobi School backs at bay with neat kicks for touch. Kenneth Lang’at, the Mang’u School captain admitted they slackened a bit to allow Nairobi School ‘steal’ the Prescott Cup in the dying seconds. “It is sad because we had it in the bag until that last minute try,†he noted.
It is interesting that Mokebo who scored the first points for Nairobi School was the one to finish it all. He went over in the first minute and Ken Andola converted. Andola kicked over a penalty infront of the posts in the fourth minute to give Nairobi School a 10-0 lead. But, Mang’u shrugged off a slow start and nearly scored two minutes later but squandered a yawning overlap. Prop Farid Abdurazak barged over in the eighth minute from a maul to reduce the gap to only five points. Nairobi School found it difficult to deal with the Mang’u forwards who had perfected the pick and drive style of play in the forwards. Kennedy Isindu and Mokebo, the Nairobi School centres were used as battering rams often taking the tackles as they came for the crash ball. Mang’u winger Mohammed Galgalo nearly scored in the 18th minute but was tackled at the corner flag.
But, Mang’u captain Kenneth Lang’at made amends one minute later by scoring a try which leveled the scores 10-10. He converted to put Mang’u ahead 12-10 for the first time. Alex Muchiri added the third try as Mang’u led 17-10 but Kennedy Gitobu narrowed the gap with a penalty for Nairobi School in the seventh minute of the second half. Manuel Akatsa then scored a try for Nairobi School as the lead changed hands 18-17. Andola stretched the lead with a penalty in the 15th minute before Anthony Ngera replied for Mang’u with a try in the 20th minute. Lang’at converted to restore the lead 24-21. That is when Mokebo barged over for the winning try which broke the hearts of Mang’u High School.
Line-ups: Nairobi School: 15 Kennedy Gitobu, 14 Manuel Akatsa, 13 Joseph Mokebo, 12 Kennedy Isindu, 11 Joel Maingi (captain), 10 Ken Andola, 9 Dennis Chiuri, 8 Jeff Ojwach, 7 Jeremy Wandui, 6 Robert Ogode, 5 Timothy Ingutia, 4 Patrick Onyango, 3 Bonface Musya, 2 Evans Musili, 1 Simiyu Wangila.
Replacements: 16 Bryan Otieno, 17 Kevin Mbuthia, 18 Dennis Nanai, 19 Ngugi Munene, 20 Ian Kimani, 21 Nick Kirimi and 22 Arnold Onyango.
Mang’u: 15 Steve Kamau, 14 Mohammed Galgalo, 13 Moses Wachira, 12 Kenneth Lang’at (captain), 11 Allan Luvanda, 10 John Mwangi, 9 Michael Kibet, 8 Dennis Karani, 7 Larry Kimathi, 6 Alex Muchiri, 5 Polycarp Odhiambo, 4 Simon Maina, 3 Anthony Ngera, 2 Mathew Musalia, 1 Farid Abdurazak.
Replacements: Joseph Mawira, 17 Martin Munene, 18 Samuel Kariuki, 19 Andrew Luyundi, 20 Chris Nderitu, 21 Paul Mwalugha, 22 Benson Mwangi.
Referee: Godwin Karuga. Released by KRFU Media and Communications krfu@iconnect.co.ke
July 6, 2007 at 3:21 pm
At least you have now come out of hiding and are not hiding behind kina nyambura’s skirt.
And by posting this your are hoping it will some how increase or double the number of patch prescott wins.
You are only on win 2 enjoy it while it lasts.
In the past five years we have still won it more than you guyz.
In fact you should consider your selves luck that mangu did’nt surpass your pathetic record.
July 6, 2007 at 5:27 pm
It’s not me. It’s not me….. Joe you must be really retarded if you think you can use alter names and get away with it.
Your ideas and lame arguments are so inbred we don’t have to be brain scientists to figure out it’s the same person. I can remember that from 1990 till 1994 patch never beat saints in a single game.
And that’s just those years I can only imagine how many more times we beat you enroute to 9 prescott cups. And that’s just prescott cup. There are still blackrocks, safari sevens nationals and other tournaments.
So don’t get your pants wet over just one season.
We have 9 of those to your sorry 2.
So find another alias and return the same inbred arguments.
We will hammer them to the end.
July 7, 2007 at 2:46 am
I believe there is a secondary school rugby tournament at Mang’u School on Sat 28th July. Can anyone tell me anything about it?
August 2, 2007 at 7:31 am
Eazy, Im nobody’s alter ego! Im just a simple supporter of the greatest rugby school in Kenyan history- and that is including all the tournaments- not just Prescott like Saints. Im obviously talking about PATCH! You so easily forget that there is Impala Floodlights, Nationals, East Africa Championships and, yes, Prescott is one of them. You use all these insults as a defence mechanism, right? Coz you really have nothing to say to support your jabbering. Well I can give you a few statistics that prove that which you are so fervently denying- that PATCH MACHINE is the best there is, was and ever will be!!
August 2, 2007 at 7:31 am
Eazy, Im nobody’s alter ego! Im just a simple supporter of the greatest rugby school in Kenyan history- and that is including all the tournaments- not just Prescott like Saints. Im obviously talking about PATCH! You so easily forget that there is Impala Floodlights, Nationals, East Africa Championships and, yes, Prescott is one of them. You use all these insults as a defence mechanism, right? Coz you really have nothing to say to support your jabbering. Well I can give you a few statistics that prove that which you are so fervently denying- that PATCH MACHINE is the best there is, was and ever will be!!
August 2, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Ian, Thanks for your input. I am eager to see your statistics.
I only mention presccott because It’s the one cup that has truly mattered over the years.
But if you would like to bring in Nationals, yes we have won that like 4 times, blackrock like 9 times, safari sevens and many more.
Please if you have any statistics lay them out.
By the way schools with tradition like RVA haven’t even set foot on floodlits so it’s not really all that.
Patch is only the greatest in the head of patcherians and that’s all it will ever be.
August 9, 2007 at 10:09 am
I don’t see how we can compare a team that played when a try was 4 points and one that played when it became 5. Some of these guys writing here do not now that there was a time when the tallest (or the smartest if you were playing against tall Patcherians) would win lineouts coz there was no boosting.
Lets Say:
Kings of the 80’s: RVA then …
Kings of the 90’s: Saints then Lenana
Wishfull thinkers: Patch
Kings of the 00′: Possibly Mangu? lets give three more years to tell
each decade has its winners
August 9, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Well said Bandit. And I guess that is THAT.
August 11, 2007 at 9:57 am
Lenana ,Patch ,Rva always
Saints Gumbaru old dirty bustards fielding 27 year old against kids .You should be ashamed !
August 11, 2007 at 4:06 pm
You moron. If you thought Saints were fielding old players you should have 1) Filed an official complaint with the KRFU, 2) Fielded your on gumbaru’s you have from the lake catchment areas.
I guess you would have seen that if you took you head outta ya arse.
IMBECILE
August 11, 2007 at 4:23 pm
PS. I guess by your moronic calculation Biko Adema is like 30yrs now.
No wonder you call yourself Gumbaru.
PUMBAVU!!!
August 13, 2007 at 4:46 pm
because Rosso was a no go on the pitch, i would go to listen to the songs and cheers. for those of us stuck states side, every year the IRB sevens is played in SoCal. Kenya always represnts strong and a good time is had by all!!!
http://www.usasevens.com/
August 13, 2007 at 4:48 pm
P.S. Saints always had old guys playing for them (see Alois)
August 13, 2007 at 5:14 pm
hehe….size and skills dont equal “old age”…..see Charles Cardovillis {Cardo}, Nuff Nuff, Allan Hicks, Kub, Oscar Radolli, Woofy….come on now..
August 14, 2007 at 4:59 am
Also see, Andrew “Ndiri” Ondiek, Sasha Nginja, Robert Koech, Kwame,Akali, Kux… Not to mention Biko Adema who played for the first team while still a Rabble.
Player haters will convince themselves of anything to catch some sleep at night.
I can walk into patch right now and form and pick 15 people over 21 some of them in form 1.
“And Lenana and Patch being national schools pulling people from the lakeshores and all;c’mon we know plenty of this folk weren’t the ‘regular’ age.
Anymore Inbred arguments?
August 14, 2007 at 7:25 am
i think upper scrum half 1996 was just amazing. Iwonder what happened to him ? is he playing pro somewhere
August 14, 2007 at 7:28 am
i think upper hill scrum half 1996 was just amazing. Iwonder what happened to him ? is he playing pro somewhere
August 14, 2007 at 8:26 am
sorry to keep posting……..did anyone ever see C. Kamweru play at Saints? did that guy go pro? oh and on a soccer note. Saints used to have a guy named diamond “dia” who used to chenga our whole team, any info?
August 24, 2007 at 12:41 am
heck i’m stickin my head in. highway was a force to reckon with early nineties. always got knocked out in the semis of every competition since form one. nothing more painful than that. we didnt win nothin but we sure put the hurtin on alot of people. the first aid corner was always full of pirates victims. these days i dont even say which school i played for when i go for floodies.
highie eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
August 29, 2007 at 7:48 am
Like Ochiel asked, What happens to all he passion after school? Without passion sport is dead. Kenyan sport is dying coz there is no passion in it anymore. How can we bring it back?
October 2, 2007 at 8:42 am
BEST TEAM, PATCH MACHINE
BEST FIELD, SAMBA PARK,
AS WE SAY, MILELE NA MILELE MI NAKUFA NA WEWE PACHI KIPENZI.ALL THE REST NI KUBAFU MAVI YA KUKU
October 12, 2007 at 4:32 am
Have you guys beeen following high school sports lately,especially changerians, then stop talking bout istory and talk of this year, we (patch) lost only one trophy National championship to Musingu high, thou we had beaten them earlier in in the pool. But we llater revenged in the East Africa school championship.
RVA has teh best field if only we look at the grass, thats why they never win away matches, if they go to the swamp field (changes), they drown, desert strom (mangu) they leave with real combats of grass burns, But patch,that is a quality field all round. Oh by the way saints has Quantity and not Quality fields, you need to work on that.
October 12, 2007 at 4:51 am
why are you people talking about some school that have never qualified for anything, they are there to make other teams like PATCH look good, too good. Can I hear an Amen….
Most craetive team, Patch, by making RVA refuse to pay at their (RVA) ground because of a smoking skull…and you ask why we love Patch???
October 12, 2007 at 5:37 am
Is Black Rock really a tournament or its some guyz in Saint looking for an avenue for Anolo Leasing and loosing all the games. how come they never win(one or twice)win in their own background.
I have an answer, having mamas chearing for you is not a good idea, you only operate in the initial stages coz of the mamas but when the real matche start you guys are tired. Keep of some things during daytime
October 20, 2007 at 8:14 am
I just stumbled upon this, Great work !
In my view, R.V.A (1989) were their best ever, Changes 1990 & 1991) were the best they’ve ever produced ( Eshiwani,Ligale Lopo,Khakame, Luvai, Shakey not forgetting Sky and that rough prop Alfu who always wore cut-off jean shorts and rubbed deep heat into our eyes while biting our hooker!! ) I played against them enough times from 89 – 91 and won some but a loss never felt bad.. one thing for sure is you never wanted to meet them in both 15s and 7s. Patch 1989 (the best of all times), won everything but presscot and that was the case in very many seasons. I salute all who donned the maroon jersey for the competition they always offered and for the cultures our opposite sides mirrored as Im sure many from their side salute those who wore the blue and gold which I proudly did.
It was much more than just winning the cup then and it still is to some of the last to play competitive school rugby which is why Im sorry, I shall not mention Saints as in my view, they do not deserve to be mentioned in the same breath. Thank you.
October 20, 2007 at 8:22 am
Anyone have an idea who ruled 7s rugby from the 80’s till now?
October 31, 2007 at 5:11 am
Mentalacrobatics congrats to yala for scoring 100+ in nationals but unfortunately they were not the first not by a mile..when i played for saints in thika i think it was 97 or 98 we played a school from coasto called war we scored 124-o these guys simply had no idea…
October 31, 2007 at 5:13 am
and i dont think it was the first time
November 14, 2007 at 9:24 am
What can you comment about the recent 15s win by musingu ask patch they have endured the wrath of musingu twice
December 17, 2007 at 7:09 am
There’s alot of passion in High School rugby which is highly ignored by those who pass and move on. We can help these kids develop further. I remeber in Highie our team had alot of Passion & Heart we reached places we couldnt imagine and started creating rivalries with Patch after beating them at Floodlights 2000, and gave Lenana and Saints a problem (Sorry Holly for breaking u’r collar bone, or let me rephrase it, We are not sorry for hitting u that hard).
I went back to Highway with a former SA student who was a heavy hitter there and helped the Kids out and u could see clear results in their performance. So guys I’d highly propose we visit our former schools and help the kids out.
But clearly the best rivalries were between Patch and Lenana, Saints and RVA, Highway and Upper Hill.
Highieeeeeee Pirates!!!!
December 17, 2007 at 10:05 pm
patch are the champs ever since independent then the other schools follow next. confirm from records of 1996 and 2006. Otherwise Kenya’s rugby is on a great improvement, and that’s reomemendable.
December 31, 2007 at 2:37 am
MFA crew of ’97 here. We played RVA once in ’95 and those boys put a whuppin on us. Compared to everyone else we don’t have much history but we are getting there.
My beef is with Saints recruiting aged elders age difference 5+ years to play high school kids…….shame on you.
February 12, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I first arrived as a staff member at RVA in 1973 and those were the best years for Ruby, since Lenana and Nairobi Schools had such excellent rugby coaches. I left RVA in 2000, and the rugby had gone way down hill due to poorer coaching and reffing. How well I remember old George Thorpe who would call games one sided the first half then switch sides and call everything the other way. I went to every game and inherited Jerry Robitchek’s cow bells since my son played scrum half for three years at the Rift. You all must remember those cow bells. We dominated in the 80’s and 90’s under good coaching. I enjoyed reading most of the comments and keep in touch with Eric as I was in charge of the piki safaris every year, the highlight of my times in Kenya. So sad to see those thousand mile trips up to Lake Samburu and Mount Kulal discontinued due to some uneducated staff members. Real men ride pikis!!! Jack
February 13, 2008 at 9:44 am
Was there a better rugby team in the history of Kenya School Boys Rugby than RVA’s 1988 team?
They won:
Prescott
Both Sevens Tournaments
and beat Saints soundly in the Blackrock final.
An interesting note: Not one team was able to score a try against the RVA 88 team. The only tries scored against them were in the sevens competitions.
Another note: RVA will still playing against teams with 19 and 20 year olds before the Kenyan system was changed.
Shel Arensen was the coach and under Shelly RVA was invincible.
There might be a better team out there, but the stats won’t prove it like the 88 Rift boys.
February 13, 2008 at 12:38 pm
You seem to forget that Saints with moose, Colo Otucho, et al. beat RVA at RVA in 88. That was when prescott was in a league format. RVA went on to win prescott with saints being runners up. That win was an almighty upset as nobody had won against RVA that Year and nobody gave us a chance in hell.
February 13, 2008 at 11:00 pm
Yep, I played in that game. 5 penalties were given by a very biased ref and Saints kicked 15 points to beat us 15 to 10. We already had the Prescott Cup at the school, Saints never scored a try in that game, and a very biased ref was allowing them to kick for posts on four calls that normally do not allow one to kick for goal…foot up on the hooker. You can’t kick for goal on foot up…it is a bent arm free kick….anyway, your right…we did not win the game, BUT if you read my first comment…I said that no try was scored against us all year, and that we won all 4 cups. I loved playing Saints…and those guys always brought it. Good memories. And no EAZY, I did not forget that Saints beat us the last game of the season. Smile. I remember it well. I also remember showing up to Blackrock a few weeks later and whipping you guys in the Finals…at your field…and taking the MPP award back to Rift. Cheers mate.
February 13, 2008 at 11:57 pm
I stand corrected. That win still fell good. Although I still rate RVA highly. Those days RVA were virtually impossible to beat. In fact i will go on and admit we were quite content being runners up to such a good team.
April 8, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I believe that in the mid 90’s RVA had the best team just not the record. I played Prop from 95-97 and we had the team to win just never did it and we were feared. Our Scrum was the best scrum around but We had a slight break down from Centre to wing. The field is also the best out there in all of Kenya. In 1997 most of our scrum made the Kenyan schools team and 2 from our line. After 1997 RVA rugby never caught up. Cheers
April 11, 2008 at 7:14 pm
much fun reading the debate. As a former Saint’s player, capt ’89 the names mentioned above bring back a flood of memories. makes my blood boil and ready to samba something. However my bones still ache as an 18 yr old from going up against pals whose age made them prime candidates for building roads for the national youth service( Hey Patch,Changes Maseno, you know who you are) so indoor soccer and golf are my only outlet. RVA 88, i was at that game in kijabe, on the sidelines nursing an injury, but the man’s name was Johnny( golden boot ) Claessen, may he bear many children. The man kicked in 4 straight penalties! wizardry i tell u. I want to remind you guys about a school that came from Harare, Zimbabwe called Ellis Robbins on a rugby tour, in 86 i think. Their captain Godfrey Zuze stayed at my parents and the fellow gave me some excellent pointers in developing rugby. Remember the Blackrock finals where Ellis Robbins had RVA on their try line? realising the RVA scrum was too strong to push over, the Zimbabweans wheeled the scrum and started pulling them in. RVA players were at a loss on what to do and started peeling away and it ended being a classic try! Zuze was the guy that when our class of ’89 came to “power” inspired us seniors,( Robert Ndiho, Michael Kangara, Johhny Claessen) to think of recruiting players from the ranks at an early age., to start players in the firt 15 who were in 2nd form on up. Before, Saint’s 1st 15 was comprised of wannabe players drawn from prefects and 6th form seniors, no matter how lousy as players they were. it was unheard of to have a 2nd former get exposure on the 1st 15. Kudos too to Collins Omollo,Kubo Kagagi and company who also helped with training post ’89. Just a little history on Saint’s. T’was good times, ok let me go do a couple of pressups to burn off steams.
April 20, 2008 at 11:10 pm
No one seems to acknowledge the small school that swam against the giants and won the 1993 Damu Pevu shield against all odds. Of course we couldn’t mix it up with the big boys in the superior Presscot cup but we did our best and won something. We were just a small provincial school with not much to show for but it was painful watching the big bacon and sausage eating RVA boys do us in, the bulky rural village boys from the National schools like Patch and Lenana, who as someone commented all looked older than their ages. That small school was to produce the future Kenya 7s team captain Oscar Osir, so big up to Nairobi Milimani secondary school. By the way we beat Moi Forces Academy a top national school in the final to win the shield.
May 16, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Blackrock tournament on SATURDAY.
You boys better believe that the Rift has a good chance of taking it for the third year in a row. I didn’t see anyone mention RVA’s 2006 and 2007 wins. I was on that team. We won 2006 over the Saints, though Kakamega gave us a better fight in the Semis, and 2007 we took it with only 3 points scored in our 7 games of the tournament. I’ll argue that the Rift has more passion for the game, we had a small fast team but that didn’t stop every one of us from racing for each tackle. Lets hear some chatter about this year, wish I could be there.
I’m not too clean on the history, how many times has Blackrock been taken by RVA vs. Saints? Either its the same or the Rift is up one.
Also, anybody know where to find a list of past Prescott champions?
May 16, 2008 at 1:41 pm
3 points against us that is, we had over 140 for.
May 16, 2008 at 11:29 pm
blackrock tomorrow… despite the comments (sadly enough, even by RVA alumni) that discredit RVA’s current talent, the past two years would argue differently. RVA was a power back in the 70s when my dad played and continues to win in the present. i played in the 06 blackrock final when RVA beat Saints 10-7 to win the final. i haven’t had the chance to watch as much rugby as some of y’all, but i would submit that game as one of the best of all time. great fans, great fight… let’s hope tomorrow has just as much quality.
May 17, 2008 at 10:45 am
I have read your comments and i am well entertained by your views on who you think is the best(read GREATEST) rugby giant in this side of the sahara.I dont have a fancy way of saying this but Mean Maroon Rugby(Changez Rugby) is way superior than ALL of you.Give credit where it is due,you owe yourselves this favour!!Keep it mean we are maroon,Nihil Praeter Optimum.
May 17, 2008 at 12:35 pm
So, the cup is being contested, or has been won already, as I type. I am dying to know who won.
“ruge”, you’re one year above me and played on the same team, which position did you play might i ask?
That game was by far the hardest I’ve played, both the Rift and the Saints had outstanding plays, coupled with incredible defense. It was ROUGH on us flankers, I almost died in the ensuing crowd and mass celebrations after full time.
Lakini since this post is kuhusu the best teams, there’s a post above by “the bandit” that I agree with completely, each decade has had its kings, though we should wait to see who’s this is, I think Mang’u was mentioned and they ARE quite good. They’re the only team the Rift lost to in all our games last year. (But I think Nairobi School took Prescott?)
May 17, 2008 at 6:30 pm
ati Rift’07… i played winger. my name for all intents and purposes is boo. that game was deadly. i sprained my knee near the beginning but played the rest of the game anyway. after the adrenaline wore off after, i couldn’t walk… had to hop to my piki. regardless, it was the most fun i’ve ever had.
unfortunately we weren’t as fortunate this year… we lost to Strathmore in the final. haven’t heard details yet though. anyone who has them, share with the rest of us.
May 17, 2008 at 7:17 pm
twistle be that you?
proud that the guys made it to the final.
strathmore again eh?
May 18, 2008 at 3:44 am
A hotbed of comments, I must say. I must agree though with HASH that few schools have shown the consistency the RVA has shown over the years. I mean Prescott 10 years in a row in the 1980s? Come on Patch, Maroon? Even you Saints? Now, I must admit, the ’90s and 2000s have been a different story, all with RVA featuring as a steadily fierce opponent, although apart from ’94 and ’98 (when they were undefeated until the final), fairing poorly in Prescott. ( I must be fair that the Blackrock showing of recent years has been inspiring, although the lack of Lenana and Nairobi School to field a competitive side in several of the tourneys has been a factor.) But the perceived decline in RVAs dominance of the Prescott has been more in tune with the increasing quality of other school’s rugby programs in Kenya, not with a decline in RVA’s quality. Few RVA players are ever over 18 as the school only goes to Form 4. So unlike Saints, whose guys are fathering children on the same team as them, RVA guys are very young. Again, their pool is small too, choosing two teams from 60 boys. There are few fair measurements of RVAs quality, unlike Patch and Maroon, who boast of their number of players on the national sides, few RVA players are eligible for national play, and fewer still are in the Nairobi ‘system’ of club play.
All that to say, their ability to compete is becoming increasingly challenged.
I must say that the teams from Western and Nyanza are more and more impressive, notably Maseno, as well as some schools from Nairobi’s environs such as Mangu. Kudos to them. Oh and one last note, there is no better pitch than RVA’s. I recall one of my team mates almost drowning in one of the “lakes” on that cow pasture known as Twikenham, while caught at the bottom of a ruck.
May 18, 2008 at 9:23 am
all to schools are wack.
watch out for strath team of 2010/2011 first team.
you rva/saints/changez…… etc people dont know what you talkin’ bout. you aint seen nothin yet
May 18, 2008 at 9:49 am
i see what you mean by the RVA consistency, but come on where are they in this millenium? Ididnt hear much of them in the past few years. then there is the thing about the national team/club play; i dont hear of their players at these levels. seriously. Then come saints. Even with those babaz, you guys dont do as well as you should with the caliber and age of the guys on your team. so what if Biko played on your team when still a mono, the other guys could have been old enough to be his dad.play an O level team and i might start trying to take you seriously
May 18, 2008 at 12:45 pm
to comment on jt’s last statement; RVA players are not at the national level because they are ineligible. not because of a lack of skill. a couple of players from the ’04 squad were approached about playing for kenya, but it was found out that they are ineligible because they are not kenyan nationals.
in answer to rift’07, yes this is twistle. who be you?
and finally props to strathmore for the win yesterday in blackrock. i heard it was a very good game. they rebounded well after losing to RVA earlier in the week.
May 18, 2008 at 1:41 pm
jt, i’d like to quote Hash on this one-
“We went to Nationals until 1989 in all sports, until the officials told us we were no longer wanted. ”
also, last two years RVA has gone to the Prescott semi’s with the best records in the regular season and taken Blackrock (06, 07).
ruge has already described the problems about going to the national team.
and really, playing for a club team while boarding at the Rift is barely possible.
ruge, in response- canada eh. love your flanks
May 23, 2008 at 1:55 am
You guys are underlooking the Nakuru High “Ruffians”…….They are some of the best thing that happened to Kenyan rugby…..
June 17, 2008 at 12:53 pm
i was in alliance(bush)and played as blind wing in 2002 but in 2003 returned to my normal 2nd centre position…and i will not forget how much we won in our year…including presscott.we beat changez 6-9…thats the team that had peter ocholla,sido ashioya,jerry o.g.ogallo and many other had jamaz lakini we were the hottest in that year.won kila kitu except floodies,lost to changes in the final..but apart from my playing time in bush,honestly always admired changez!!maroon ae just good
June 27, 2008 at 7:31 am
Alliance High School has the deadliest team this year dudes!
June 28, 2008 at 10:21 am
Old Saints Nairobi ruled early 60ties.!!
July 2, 2008 at 10:56 pm
The Rift is going to the finals!
July 11, 2008 at 3:16 am
I have to say that RIFT is one of the toughest teams out there. BlackRock finalists, Prescott finalists. Saints didnt make it to Blackrock finals, Strathmore didnt make it to Prescott.You old buffs better show some appreciation, Rift hadn’t been to Prescott in 10 years. And we beat alumni the day after Prescott. Rift 08 boys.
July 13, 2008 at 5:12 am
as a former Yala rugby player, I think that the school is going down in terms of rugby and academics because of the poor management. thge rugby mechanic,who, I must add, is responsible for the very many young people who play today both locally and in the world over. look at the number of Yala greats even now in the national team
the discipline, the charisma and the performance speak volumes about that place called YALA. AND MR TIM OKULLU. HOW MANY TEAMS HAVE PLAYED IN THE NATIOS CONSISTENTLY LIKE YALA.
PLEASE HELP YALA WHOEVER HOWEVER. WE ARE STILL TRYING AND WILL NEVER GIVE UP.
SOME GUYS MAY WANT TO 4GET THEIR TIME IN YALA, BUT I HAVE GO NEWS FOR YOU, THE PAST CAN NOT BE CHANGED!!!! LIVE WITH IT AND LET THOSE GENERATIONS COMING AFTER YOU ENJOY. FOR FURTHER COMMENTS SEE ME AT KULABU!!!!!
July 14, 2008 at 3:25 am
How about a 10th Prescott win for Saints then? RVA were good, as they normally are in any final. What about the Saints/RVA rivalry? This must be the umpteenth Prescott final between us. But this win should go along way to show rugby is still good at Saints.
July 14, 2008 at 12:09 pm
well in “Marys”…well in
RUGBY: Saint Mary’s take Prescott Cup
Story by THE PUNTER
Publication Date: 7/6/2008
David Ambunya kicked over a penalty in the third minute of extra time to steer St. Mary’s School to the Coca Cola Prescott Cup schools rugby title on Friday at the Rugby Union of East Africa ground.
The Saints edged out Rift Valley Academy 6-3 under slippery conditions and 63 minutes of quality rugby that kept the fans on the edge of their seats. The Saints were 20 seconds from defeat when Chris Kinzer narrowly missed a kickable penalty for RVA as the game went into extra time.
Ambunya was named as the most valuable player, Odeke Ekirapa (RVA) the best back and Muithi Kimeu (St. Mary’s) the best forward.
Barely one minute after the kick off, Ambunya missed a long range penalty for St. Mary’s who dictated the opening nine minutes as the skies opened. The Kijabe-side captained by Ekirapa weathered an early pressure and were awarded a penalty in the 10th minute.
Jonathan Kawira missed but it was a combination of Kinzer, Steve Offringa and Ekirapa which often broke through St. Mary’s ranks. They nearly scored in the 28th minute.
Ambunya drilled over a penalty in the 26th minute for a 3-0 lead at half-time.
The second half saw RVA come back forcefully. Luke Watson, Jesse Entwhistle and Ben Johnson combined well at the backrow to provide clean ball for scrum-half Nur Mamo.
Kinzer levelled for RVA in the 47th minute and for the next 13 minutes, it was a close match which could have gone either way. Ambunya notched the winner in the third minute of extra time.
Ekirapa was graceful in defeat. “Honestly this was a good match and St. Mary’s came at us quite hard but we contained the pressure. I though we had it at one stage but were unlucky. We were 20 seconds from winning,†the captain said.
Paul Ahaisibwe, St. Mary’s captain, followed in the footsteps of his compatriot Adrian Bukenya. “The wet conditions made it difficult because we had planned on playing a running game,†he admitted.
But, the captain admitted that RVA always rose to the occasion in any final they reached. “We tried everything and some players — Alex Mutune and Anthony Oyugi — were injured but they still did well,†the captain said.
Upper Hill also won the Damu Pevu Shield by beating Dagoretti High 5-0 in the final. Vincent Mwadime scored the lone try for Upper Hill.
Elsewhere, the national rugby team will polish up their training today at the RFUEA ground from 11 am. Coach Michael ‘Tank’ Otieno will try out the players in different positions to come up with the starting 22 who will play Cameroon next Saturday in the Rugby World Cup qualifiers and Africa Rugby Confederation trophy.
July 16, 2008 at 11:32 am
Man, a well-fought battle, but still a loss for Rift.
July 19, 2008 at 2:11 am
ditchez ehh ditchez ahh!!!!……………..best team ever.proud to be their winger
July 19, 2008 at 10:32 am
Bushieeeeee! Bushiaaaaaaaa! ALLIANCE HAS BEATEN THEM ALL.HA!HA!
July 22, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Reading this page brought back fond memories of my rugby days at Saints.Its sad that our dominance of school rugby brought inconceivable heartache on unworthy opponents,who are on a loosing battle in diminishing our accomplishments.I give my respect to RVA,Saints,Lenana and Patch for bringing passion to schools Rugby. The greatest rugby games played at Saints grounds were
‘Brown shirts vs White Shirts’, only a true saint would know they were a sight to behold.
Only schools worth mentioning are RVA ,Saints,Lenana,Patch
Best Rubgy Playing School : Saints,RVA,Lenana,Patch
Best team (Prescott Dominance) : RVA , Saints,Lenana,Patch
Best Cheering Squad : Patch,Changes
Most Hated Team : Saints
Best school song : Patch ,Saints
Best Field : Saints (Pavillion and seating area)
Best Team Play : Changes,RVA
Best Individual talent : Saints,Patch
Best Fitness : Changes,Patch
July 26, 2008 at 10:43 am
08’CHANGERIAN.maroon so far has been the best team ever with guys as early as form twos in the squad doing their best.PARTCH this season are just bunch of jockers to the extent of being thrushed 37-0 by the so called SAINTS in their prescott match.
July 26, 2008 at 10:59 am
All of you MAROON haters out there piss out coz the maroonians have just got their new JERSEYS which are just waiting for you;PARTCH,SAINTS,RVA and the so called BANDITS of STRATH.
Watch out for MAROON next season with Stanley Lunani as the captain.
MAROON IS COMING FOR THIS TROPHIES
1.PRESCOTT.
2.FLOODLIT.
3.NAIROBI SEVENS CHAMPS.
4.NAIROBI 15s CHAMPS.
July 26, 2008 at 11:47 am
When you talk about Changez wining PRESCOTT in 82′,I have to ask someone who know it well and that is ma dad,Mr Fred Odhiambo.This guy played for MAROON since he waz in form two until 1982 when he waz in form six in Changez.They defeated RVA in our own STERLING pitch where a multitude of people gathered to cheer our own MAROONIANS.SOwhoeva thinks that RVA is aTEAM,better ask the old boys of RVA of 1982.
August 1, 2008 at 2:06 pm
whats all this hype about maroon? i dont understand. you guys hatin on us BANDITS need to stop. We won blacrock, reached the finals for the provincials and were in the semis for the prescott cup. I mean during the safari sevens we had two of our players in the Nairobi team. What?
August 1, 2008 at 4:39 pm
RVA from 95-97 had a powerful scrum and people knew us. Our line was ok we had Ouko but our scrum is what made us known. WE missed a kick during the Blackrock final and lost the game in 1997. 4-5 of us from RVA made the Kenyan Schools team. We also were all the right age not like saints who had grandfathers playing on the team. Cheers
August 4, 2008 at 2:16 pm
you know what john thomas,you guys won the blackrock coz of that confused teacher of yours called Kharp.he ref’s so badly that one actually think that rugby in Nairobi is about referees.And again when you talk about reaching 15s finals you surprise me a lot coz BANDITS A played against DITCHEZ B in the semi finals and won only 15-5 so i realy wonder what you mean.MEAN MAROON played a gainst SAINTS A where form sixes like Alex Mutune and the likes of Oyugi played and they only managed us 18-0 with again Kharp refing with all the hate on MAROON,I AM a maroon so i know.A gain in the SAFARI SEVENS when you talk about two players who i seem to know who are Joseh and Caleb, i wonder coz MAROON took five of our players there who represented MAROON and Nairobi as a whole very well.So you guy next time when you claim a win,just know Kharp had something to do with it.MAROON can THRUSH the so called BANDITS 76-0 with Kharp not refing. I AM A MEAN MAROON AND I’M REALLY PROUD OF THE FACT.cheers to all Changerians.MAROON blood never dries up.
August 12, 2008 at 10:24 am
Mr. odanger . First of all, his name is Cap, not Kharp. I do not think this is a forum to settle personal scores but rather one to state opinions on Kenyan rugby in general.
Indeed Lenana has produced several of the greatest rugby players (many of whom are personal friends).
It is completely unjustified to trash out the success of 22 rugby players to what you feelk may be the incompetence of one individuel.
You seem to have a deep interest in the game. What club do you play for?
I hope to see you in action against Uganda this weekend!
August 20, 2008 at 10:43 am
yes one of the bandits,first i dont play for any club coz am still a changerian,do you yourself?anyway on sato i waz at the rugby grounds watching the game and funny enough not that am hating on your teacher but the guy was just but taking photographs of the crowd not even the players.the bandits team is good and that is why you even beat us in the presscott but all that i wanted to say is that you guys always like to depend on the refs so much most preferably cap so as to feel that the game waz fair.
August 23, 2008 at 12:38 pm
mr. odanger fictor, this might seem biased sinced mr.cap was a teacher of mine, but he is one of the fairest refs i know. I watched this years important Bandit games and the only ref i can complain about was the one at the provincial finals against Saints. You can’t downplay the achievements of one of the best Bandits 1st XV sides just because you say that the ref was unfair in a few matches.
September 2, 2008 at 6:56 am
maseno have the best record in 7’s rugby in Kenya….tell me who can match that….the Nairobi skools had their day…back in the 70’s and 80’s…period!!
September 3, 2008 at 5:35 am
kakamega high school deserve all the credit this year coz their perfomance thiz year has been commendable both in 7s and 15s. kuddos katch
September 9, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Prescott Cup is back where it belongs…at St. Mary’s school aka Saints…
October 17, 2008 at 10:17 am
A Saint Marys sntudet cannot spell IB …. aaaay teroburu…
October 29, 2008 at 10:57 am
Mean Maroon has stood as the best and will always be the best. Just a thought why dont these great players prove their mettle in club rugby? wanaenda wapi? Scotland? Nah!
October 29, 2008 at 10:58 am
By the way thats me the jumper against Saint Mary’s Yala walipata viboko.
December 8, 2008 at 4:18 am
Prescott 2009, Defending Champs saints have lost only 3 players, Strath have retained only 3 while Patch and Maroon will have new squads. Will Mangu set the Bush on fire? …. for RVA, we have waited too long for you to win. Oh, there is also a playoff between UPPA and Kiambu!
December 29, 2008 at 3:20 pm
yeah!all know that mean maroon are the khot guyz in tha rudge game!wako juu yani!all y’all other teams(esp.patch)who think that you can measure up to their level jueni that mmechapa in every aspect!changez are on top n u cant even try to reach their level of khottness,you’llget burnt!!MEAN MAROON!!!
February 15, 2009 at 5:27 am
Ooohkay, you know that in those days 80-90 RVA were basically operating with over age kids just like Saints in the 90s. The only team that regularly gave RVA thorough education in creative rugby was MEAN MAROON. Real Kenyan stars. Remember that sevens team that was made up purely of former Changerians.(Wamanga,Ocholla Mitch,Ocholla Peter….)
Patch often patched up a game plan that would unravel every time we got onto their patch at Twigs and Harm.(Ati samba pack, the only thing gets Sambuad there is a Patcherian, remember that thorough beating you guys got from neighbors Saints in 95) Except for that freak of nature Omuse( short guy but extremely fast…rumor..alikuwa mchawi) in 96, patches can never claim any glory from Real Mean Maroons.
Saints had to play the Prescott final in 95 with one of their teachers as the Ref to win by 1 point. Dubious, even the media said it.( you are a basta…. you’re a basta….. referee)The whole game possession was like a match between Arsenal and Gor Mahia Saints.Talk about dominating.
At the John Andrews 7s fest in 95, RVA left early after being made to feel like Forsdicks was hell. They could not take the tackles.
We were banned fron junior colts because the RVA under 15s were soft.Maroon 14 year olds fresh from shags and shamba routinely proved that we could take any 16 year old Buffalo and make him like the soft Kijabe turf. Ati altitude advantage!
On Fladiz I can only say patches on rags have won it fewer times than Changes. Check the record.
Schools like Yala and Musingu should shut it because we all know students in Shags are much older than those in urban schools.Also , you need at least 20 years pedigree in the game before you open your trap. Ati Rosslyn? Whats that? A golfing outfit?
The Duke of York was commander of all Kenyan Rugby from 1950 to 1980 and even won club titles, including regional titles. Mwangi Kioi was a famous African player from those days. Top that Whales! Idiot Patchwork!
Best team all time(1950-now): Mean maroon
Most trophies : ”
Most creative : ”
Best uniform : ”
Most Kenyan national team captains : ”
Remember we invented the switch pass in Kenya!
Marooni eeeeh….Marooni ahhhhhhh.
March 5, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Kiambogo for sure – only coz my brother, Poshi, was one of the ‘Buffalo-es’ that kicked Lenana a%$ relentlessly in the ’80’s:-) [ok ok so am biased…..]
April 2, 2009 at 5:32 am
maroon bado tuko.though we lost the sevens to the whores ditchez,i tell you we will win the floodies, presscot,blackrock,provies 15s.nihil praeter optimum
May 1, 2009 at 7:55 am
bugoma high is my school en i played 4 it in 2008 en 2007 en believe it or not we were good that kakamega en musingu the eastafrican champs feared us mbaya if you wnt to knw better we had good players like wefuafua ,mike , silo , oush en samba en many more . bg high eeeeh! bg high aaah! papa munyasia bilo, en many more were good tackles that made us dominate the safari sevens western.cheeers
May 11, 2009 at 6:47 am
Bandits 1stXV my ass. My school Woodhouse Grove School can hammer you and like 112-0 or if we are behinde 12-0 we can come back with 8 tries/convertions before halftime then another 8 tries/convertions with 4 drop goals if you consede that much and it will be the score? well lets see what it will be:
Woodhouse Grove School 124 (56)-(12) 12 Bandits then it will go like this:
10 tries/convertions, 2 drop goals HT 6 tries/convertions, 2 drop goals to your 1 try/ covertion HT 1 drop goal and it will be Bandits 10 (7)-(76) 124 Woodhouse Grove School and Woodhouse Grove School 248-22on aggregate with Woodhouse Grove School 32 tries, 32convertions, 8 drop goals to your 3 tries, 2 covertions,1 drop goal.
G-O W-O-O-D-H-O-U-S-E G-R-O-V-E S-C-H-O-O-L
Go Woodhouse Grove School.
May 18, 2009 at 4:03 am
ha! Balckrock 2009 went to Upper Hill. Beating those Bandits of Strath in drop kicks after a 0-0 draw.
Why do all celebrate when Saints lose? esp. when Strath beat them!
May 24, 2009 at 10:27 am
ehem i think we shud all just give it up 4 saints for showing us a good game yesterday Saturday 23 of may at the impala grounds kudos 2 saintS for beating patch 27 something MAN OF THE MATCH as usual waz the 1 and only DAVID AMBUNYA who showed the talent we have at saint marrysif i can name the few players they include the best of the best starting with the captain,nyandigisi,vice captain:oyugi,the rest of the squad include ,david ambunya,lyle asiligwa, robert(majengo), perter ngethe(PN),stone ,tony(starbecks),tengule(rat),samy oliech(kitten),rege ambo,n the rest .saint will always be ontop.n big ups 2 horse,n thagi for making it a geat team proud 2 be a saint hope to play for it 1 day….by Eston kihiu
May 24, 2009 at 12:21 pm
wat iz it wit people? everyone is always against the bandits. this waz witnessed at this years blackrock festival. i played in the bandits 2nd xv and the atmosphere when our 1st team beat saints was in a word just awesome. now in the final, everyone waz against us. i guess that that just shows how everyone thinks that we are on top of our game and we proved it. i was proud to be a part of the bandits blackrock 2009
June 20, 2009 at 5:27 am
i think maroon has produced the best talent ever wit Stanley lunani as the best fb thnk dat guy is a rugby lord
June 25, 2009 at 3:20 am
90’s belonged to Saints and their rivalry against RVA. Die hard Saint’s player and we the best in Nairobi. Congrats to Strathmore for winning blackrock after decades of tribulations. Good luck Stressmore.
Keep on raising the standards of the game “Swing low sweet chariot”
June 25, 2009 at 3:58 am
hello cssp,
Your well versed history of the game is awesome.
It is fantastic what schools rugby brings to the table, endless debates. Playing in Strathmore we used to be told the triumphs of the A-levels team and how they beat clubs.
Prince of Wales and Duke of York. It is a pity that the name were dropped due to the nationalism sentiments that spread after independence.
All in all my memorable moments were playing against Patch and Lenana. Their schools, including RVA had an iconic aura of contemplative zen about them.
Playing later in Saints I was amused that the training ground had kids from 10-14yrs, 15-16 and then F-4 to IB2 playing for a spot in the blue and white. If Kenya had that organisation or facilities. Kenya would be great in 15’s.
I lost the 2002 prescott Semi playing with Biko Adema, Ben Nyambu, Emannuel Were and later in 2003 with a team that was composed of very young players. Saints always put up a fight. What can you ask for from a team. To be beaten again in 2003 black rock final was sickening.
Capping it off the 2002 was a great year winning all the Sevens events from Provincial, Nationals with coach Paul Odera and Safari Sevens was superb. That season was a watershed in what rugby was becoming in Kenya more people thinking Sevens is the game to play.
In my opinion though we lost the 2003 in Prescott semi, blackrock and Sevens in the 2003 Safari Sevens. The comradrie gained in the team is worth tenfold and the ethos gained as well.
Best schools are Lenana, Nairobi school, RVA, Strathmore and Saints all the creme de la creme of what and how rugby is to be played.
Keep the faith and tradition all bloggers.
(Canada).
July 4, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Mean Maroon is always well represented. When i come to think of it, all I remember about Saints is a dude called Father Cafry, Saints teachers who double as referees in Prescott matches and rather DUBIOUS PENALTY TRIES… I know the Changes First XV, can some one list the Saint Mary’s First XVI….
July 6, 2009 at 9:58 am
While our haters were complaining about refs, Saints just bagged another prescott at quins on the 4th of july. This makes it like the 11th prescott cup. A whole bunch of alumni were there to cheer for saints. I actually ran into members of my prescott team and other previous saints prescott champions, needless to say the alumni were proud of the saints team representing.
Hi Joe.
July 6, 2009 at 10:00 am
@Eazy – I need to find the old Prescott cup winners, but I think that puts Saints almost on equal footing with RVA for number of Prescott wins.
July 7, 2009 at 3:13 am
We are actually tied with RVA for the number of prescott cup wins. I know this coz in 1991 when we won the original trophy the number of times RVA won was engraved on the trophy. They now have a new trophy. The original is probably somewhere in the saints trophy cabinet. The final against Mangu was won convincingly. Mangu played some good rugby though, I was impressed with their rolling maul. It was almost unstoppable. Saints run the ball through the phases and often caught Mangu out scoring some good tries in the process.
July 7, 2009 at 12:15 pm
well in saint for takin prescot once a gain it was bound to happen nyway
July 8, 2009 at 2:13 am
Cheers Eazy for valiantly holding up against all the haters over the months. K.O thanks.
After a long hiatus….I’m back to put it on record that Saints is undoubtedly the winningest team in Kenya school boy rugby. Any questions??
Congrats Saints on another successful season….
National Sevens Champions ’09 ( Dubai 7’s here we come yet again) , Nairobi Provincial 15’s Champions, Runners-up National 15s, Anthony’s Nyandigisi and Oyugi for being the only school boys representing at the IRB Junior World Trophy, and most importantly Prescott Champions for a record 11th time.
Go Mary’s!!!
July 10, 2009 at 1:25 am
Thanks CSSP, my works keeps getting easier coz Saints keep bagging trophies. The silence from the haters is deafening. Although I know they’ll be back with some more hateration.
July 11, 2009 at 12:06 pm
K.O. long time no see. howis canada? didnt know u still followed high school rugby back here. good to hear from you.
July 11, 2009 at 12:13 pm
i hav to respect saints this season (being a bandit 2nd XV player myself this season) but i still have to put you guys down a bit. how many twenty something year olds do you have playing for you guys? and i knew some of your players when they were in Strath. since when did J.B become a serious guy? back in strath he couldnt even run a lap without throwing up, the two years later he is starting in the first team. and Ambunya, how? i dont know what u guys do to people there but stop poaching ex-Strath students
July 25, 2009 at 4:14 am
Totally agree with you John Thomas. The history of School’s rugby needs to placed on two levels …. the under 18s & the grandpas ….. Saints, RVA etc need to be looking at club level. True hall of fame belongs to Patch, Changez, Upper …… and a good list of names up here …. not grandpas
July 25, 2009 at 10:51 am
RVA has never had any player over 18. If there was a student over 18 at the school, he wasn’t allowed to play. I know this because it happened to a guy in the years when I was playing. RVA didn’t do that sort of fudging of the rules. Ever.
July 25, 2009 at 7:40 pm
thanks HASH, you beat me to the punch. RVA does no such thing
one of my own classmates was also not allowed to play, as he was nearing 20 during our senior year.
please boys, in any attempt to discredit your fellow Kenyan teams, please atleast make it informed.
congrats Saints. i hate to say it though. i was fortunate enough over my three years playing for the first XV to never see them win prescott, and was able to snatch that blackrock cup from right under their noses (directly after a double overtime match with kakamega). i guess that rift elevation has some advantages.
anybody have any knews about the attempts to make rugby olympic?
August 9, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Just wanna echo something my former roommate and teammate Ian Kimani said,
Patch 07 was one of the best teams ever, no doubt about that.
Tracking all the way from 06 when the team beat Daggoz main team in the Damu Pevu, to winning the Uttermost playing against its 2nd string team yet the likes of Saints, Changez and Mangu were in attendance.
In 07, we played Changez and Mangu open unlucky loosing in the final of both tournaments to the hosts. Come floodlights, we were unlucky in the semiz to Mang’u but come out with the bronze.
When it came to 7z, we were in another league, won the provincials but loosing in the national’s 7z against Maseno.
Come the next term during 15z, we won the provincials. For the nationals, we lost unfairly in the finals 10-8 to Musingu. I say unfairly coz a successful conversion was declined yet one of the touch judge’s had already lifted his flag but had to take it down quickly because the other TJ from Western refused to lift his. A drop kick at the 83rd minute killed the game yet after 3 plays after the buzzer had been blown. But this thingz happen.
Come Prescott we walloped Saints in the semiz, i think 37-5 if not more and went ahead to win against Mangu 26-24.
We went for the East African games in August were we met Musingu again in the finals n beat them 14-10 with only 16 players travelling due to holiday tution and exam fever but again one player fell sick and had to return home. So 15 hard players no substitutes but still won the regional trophy.
With all this said, it can be concluded that Patch Machine 07 was the best there was in recent pasts. Only missing one final the whole season, but coming out with a medal in every tournament.
10 tournaments, 10 medals,
5 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 bronze.
But I can bet it would have been 11 tournaments, 6 Gold if only Saints wouldn’t hv disqualified us for “coming late” yet the games hadn’t started.
Another thing, age actually “DOESN’T” really matter that much so Saints you might be excused on that BUT when we regard experience, well…. Saints players, need to get out asap. You can’t be playing Prescott for 3 years and stil celebrate beating kids who started their rugby when you were starting your Prescott life. All you are doing is collecting medals from the boring matches.
I was suprised when i came back and went to watch the prescott finals only to find guyz i played against with celebrating a win against kids who were washing our jerseys, instead of playing in the Kenya Cup.
You are making all your games seem like a NZ vs Japan match. BORING!!!
I can proudly say I deserved my Prescott medal since no one could predict who would win that match, and it was played till the final whistle. Thanks to my 07 teammates and coach Foxx for the experience and lessons gained.
SAINTS…Rugby is not only about winning (and never about showing off your medals to your 3week girlfriends), but mostly its about the PRIDE that comes with it.
August 14, 2009 at 6:53 am
I agree fully with Gitwabbz FB . During Blackrock I watched Saints lose to the defending champs, The Bandits. Later on, someone commented, some of these players are older that Strathmore University players. In fact, many Saints players did not make the Kenya Under -19 this year because they were too old – Nyando, Oyugi etc. And they celebrate that they won Prescott! Last year they won prescott thanks to a 20 year old flyhalf called Alex. Those guys do not appreciate what good rugby is. No wonder they never go on tour for age-grade tournaments (only open tournaments like Dubai where age does not matter). they would be too old to play.
This year they went on to deny RVA a chance to play any game at blackrock because their opponents all came late. RVA were the first team to come (from the furthest home) and they played their first game at 2:00 p.m!
There is nothing more satisfying than watching saints lose! Like they did at Blackrock this year!
August 15, 2009 at 6:43 am
The hateration keeps coming.
Bandit aren’t you contradicting yourself by agreeing with gitmo? Coz he just said that age doesn’t matter. But let’s address this age thing fully. I was at Saints towards the end of the old education system and the begining of the 8-4-4 system. That was almost 20yrs ago. At that time there was an argument brought forward that Saint’s, RVA and Hillcrest will have an advantage since the 8-4-4 system does not fully apply. It was also an assumption that the students in these schools will be older. What surprises me is after all these years the krfu has not requested schools to submit birth certificates (copies) of their squad members . I know this is not a hard thing to do since we all have one. What will surprise you is how many players even those in I.B in saints will really be affected by these requirements. Keep in mind that Saints has also the GCSE system and you will be surprised how many of them are in I.B and are under 18. What will surprise you even further is how many students from so called national schools who will be excluded as a result. Does anybody remember Sky, who used to be in changes? That was one grown ass man wasn’t he? In any case how will it affect saints as far our training, hand eye co-ordination and fitness , because the training methods won’t change and lets say for the sake of argument we replace a 20 year old with an 18 year old, do you think the results will be that different considering we beat you by an average 20 to 30 pts? Just so you know, I was 18 in my last year at saints and I was in I.B . I played for saints from the time I was 14 in 2nd form. I heard gitmo complaining about the experience, but is it really our fault that saints will play their rabbles while the only experience you give your rabbles is washing shirts? . Bandit why is it that I read on the standard online that Anthoy Nyadigisi, Anthony Oyugi and David Wachira made it to the under 20 team. Obviously you both can’t be correct.
lastly the two prescott championships games that I was involved in were against RVA and if you remember not much had changed in these two schools. At the time RVA was the team to beat and those two finals were to me the most memorable RVA always played very hard and skillfully but were also very clean. And you would be surprised how young the Kids are at RVA. Do not confuse body size with Age.
August 15, 2009 at 7:11 am
P.S
@ Bandit , I feel your hatred for Saints considering we beat you in the prescott semis 53-3. Do whatever it takes (ease entry requirements, rewind a couple of fellas, get that 20yr old ASAP) . In the mean time Please take a number and join that que headed by Joe.
August 23, 2009 at 12:39 pm
i am pissed. i play 4 the Bandits 2nd XV. This year we won only one game in the damu pevu. the majority of the team is 14 and 15 year old form twos and a few form 3s. I am in form two and my classmates and i were supposed to be playing colts this year but had to move up because the school couldnt allow the form threes to play due to marks. I have to say, to all the teams we lost to, patch had to be the worst. Not because they played extremely well, but because they gave us their first team. the game ended 27-3. That is not a score to be proud of when your first team beats 15 year olds 27-3. Come on. Hillcrest came to Samba park and drabbed us fifty something nil. Some of those guys drove themselves to our school. we held the same team at Blackrock only to have them score a last minute try to kick us out of the main cup. Those guys, and i can say this confidently, have poor rugby playing skills. they are bullies on the pitch and that is how they won us. At kiambu we played their senior team again. These guys had just been relegated from Prescott the previous year. The exact same team. They drabbed us guys 56-0. What i’m tryin to say is guys shouldnt be happy after drabbing a team way younger and less experienced. have some class and honor. respect the sport.
September 9, 2009 at 1:17 am
mean maroon will still remain tha toughest team of all seasons!!!!
October 6, 2009 at 4:24 am
Mean maroon best rugby school team of all time ,remember the 95 -97 teams of akina Ngonga,Mbarine ,Ronnie,Tonie
Kudos guyz
November 28, 2009 at 1:57 am
Nowadays, he best high school Rugby teams seem to hails from Western kenya school-Maseno,Saint Mary’s Yala,Kakamega high school,Musingu,Friends School kamusinga just to mention a few…
December 12, 2009 at 5:11 am
NJORO BOYZ aka P.O.H,i’m proud 2 say that i’m an O.B .Man,Red Assassins used 2 assassinate all skuls……..
January 27, 2010 at 2:17 am
Sabhwar…From my playing days the boys from western had a significant size advantage they were just short on the technical stuff and skill level and that was always bound to change with time so I’m not surprised that they are now causing havoc.
February 13, 2010 at 1:23 am
My dear brothers. There is only one school that stands above the rest when it comes to rugby(also pronounced rakapi). It is the only school that even the media refers to as a ‘perennial powerhouse’. And yes it also fertile recruiting ground for the St. Mary’s of the world. You failed to mention that RVA also frequently fielded wazees to play with our younger boys. No matter though, the results were usually consistent. I also have to pay my respects to Njoro Boys, fearless and resourceful. Kach and Musingu also deserve a mention.
In case you’ve been away from the planet; Best rugby school in Kenya? Maroon Baby! Changez bar none.
February 13, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I don’t know how many times we Rift alumni have to stress this. RVA has a strict policy against playing anyone above 18.
But it’s flattering that teams constantly try to depreciate our accomplishments by making false claims and accusations.
February 15, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I agree with Rift 07 there are no students at RVA over 18 and if there was one or two theys ure werent allowed to play rugby. Sorry the rest of your schools couldnt beat our scrums and we were just bigger than you guys. Its growing up in the BUNDU eating real bush meat instead of Ugali that has made us bigger. if only we had the speed that some of you guys had on your wings. wazi. cheers
May 11, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Though rather late in the day, let me join the fray.High School rugby in Kenya was unmatched. I will go with Changez as the best but of course I am biased. However we had some of the best players the country has ever seen; from the earlier days of Omaido, Kioi, JC Wakhu to later day stars like Ndeda, Miheso, Pasinye, etc. I fondly remember the Maroon team of 1990 that was almost invisible. We lost narrowly to RVA in the prescott finals 9-7 thanks to three penalties from the boot of one Kevin Kaufelt against our one try and conversion. I will never forget the dubious refing of Mahugu who denied as a clear pushover try. Guess even he couldn’t fathom that we were fixing RVA in their traditional strong point-their pack. That team actually won all its prescott games that year save for a memorable away 7 all draw against patch and of course the loss in the finals played at Harlequins against RVA. The team went on to win the inagural National Rugby trophy with some cricket scores against Maseno I think (Or was it Kakamega?) . That team had some great players like Lopow, Tano, Akena and Khakame among others, all of whom went on to play for Kenya and dare say greatly influenced the club rugby scene in Kenya for the next 8 or so years. I also recall the 1st and 2nd team meeting in the John Andrews 7s finals.
Not looking for excuses for the emergence of saints as a power house in the 90’s but the demise of the A level system certainly did play a role in this. And it is not so much the age factor thats the issue here. Fact is guys who had got top notch experience playing prescott in one school while in fourth form then moved on to IB and had another two years of playing at the same level, against teams that comprised of guys who were at most in second form when those guys were in fourth form. Believe me a 2 year gap (agewise or experience wise) for a highschool student is a major one. Also assume that the A level system was in place, then these guys would surely be still playing for their respective schools and perhaps saints would not have excelled as much. Also is it not a coincidence that the saints dominance emerged only after the scrapping of the A-level system? But that is just my line of thought.
RVA on the other hand were just well organised and that is why they were so dominant. No matter how much talent you have, how many fleet footed speedy wingers, dummy selling centers, visionary kicking flyhalfs or industrious creative scrum halfs, without organisation you will falter when pitted against an organised team. Organisation comes with quality coaching which RVA had. I doubt there was a coach of RVA’s Shelly Arensen’s calibre in schools rugby at that time.
So my take in terms of team achievements is RVA tops followed by Changez then Patch and then Saints (4th simply because of the IB advantage), taking everything into consideration. Sport is an emotive and subjective issue and it is difficult to come to a conclusive agreement on who is the best of all time, whatever the sport. Is it Ali of Joe Louis? Sugar Ray Leonard or Sugar Ray Robinson? Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan? Aryton Senna or Michael Schumacher? Pele or Maradona? You will get compelling arguments for all, but for me Changez Mean Maroon will forever be the meanest of them all.
May 23, 2010 at 10:45 am
kakamega high is so fly heck i play for the school team B 7S
June 13, 2010 at 7:09 am
Well i have read all the comments in here. Needless to say that previously Mangu had not been a power house in Rugby, but all this changed when one time we went to Patch and were walloped 35-7 way back in 94! we schemed and things started changing in 96, we got better and in 97 we left on top, since then, I think Mangu has performed better than any of these schools in Rugby, winning prescott trophies, floodlights and national champs. Yesterday, they won the nationals! in March they won flood lights! next week they have a game against Bush which they shall win, and be on course to win Prescott! Give credit where credit is due! They may not have started rugby as early as petch and mean maroon, but for sure they have emerged tops currently! infact the last decade (10 years) infact not 10 but 13 yrs! Watch this space!
June 22, 2010 at 12:12 pm
This year promises to be a vintage one for Mangu! Floodlit+Natios in the bag, all the wile steamrolling its way past all opposition towards the Prescott Cup. The way things look, it’ll be more of the same during the East African games. And don’t talk about Blackrock shit, that tournament has been in decline since 2001, look at the invitees list this year to understand what I mean. It seems to me that Mangu is on course to win all the tournaments it’s entered. First team to do so mayne!! Wazimba we have!
June 22, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Hey, i told u pips, Mangu thrashed Bush 19-10 over a week ago n tomorrow, they got a date with RVA, mark u, the win was at Bush, now they gonna take the trophy at home against RVA, hopefully!
July 3, 2010 at 4:50 am
proud to be a chaangrerian allumni,
we learn to lead as others follow,
nothing but the best,
mean maroon will always take the lead
July 3, 2010 at 2:28 pm
4 Prescott finals appearances in the last 5 years. Did I hear someone say MANGU HIGH???????????????????
July 14, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Wazimba the strong Mangu’s squad In 2010 has won Floodlights, National 15s, Prescott and Damupevu! Whaaat?!?
Jishinde Ushinde!
July 21, 2010 at 7:45 am
mmmmh, lets forget the yester years and talk about this year!!!!! Wazimba we have!!! all available trophies won!!!! what a feat! Mangu is on top!
July 22, 2010 at 12:06 pm
Wazimba we have them!!
September 1, 2010 at 4:26 am
Vipi Hench!
Oh, BTW, Mangu snagged the East Africa games trophy too, so that’s a trophy in every competition we’ve entered this year. Man it feels good to be a
gangstaManguman!September 7, 2010 at 2:28 am
Hallo, mmmh did i hear any body say EASS rugby champiuons???? well in Mangumen, no school has ever bagged aLL THOSE TROPHIES IN A SINGLE YR!! please feel free to correct me. Prescott, floodlight, National, East Africa scchools and Damu changa, all the competitions they ever entered. MMMM wazimba we have
February 15, 2011 at 4:22 am
I read with a lot of laughter about Saint Marys .. being a strong rugby side … rewind to 1976 when a Senior Colts side from Lenana beat the Saints 1st Fifteen .. both on the pitch and off .. Saints subsequently WOULD not play Lenana School … they may be strong now … 6th Formers playing 4th Formers from other schools … please
August 22, 2011 at 7:09 am
Hello again, fiercely loyal rugby fans,
I’ll always love Kenyan high school rugby and will ALWAYS support my almer mater team, The Mean Maroon squad.
I don’t care what anyone says but I will always consider The Mean Maroon of 1993 as the best team ever fielded. Trust me, I’m aware of all the exploits of The Mean Maroon teams, past and present, but damn these chaps were awesome!
I always preferred the classic solid Maroon kit and had a bad feeling about the home game against Saints when the striped kit was “re-unveiled” and we subsequenly lost the match though there were major discrepancies about the refereeing. All the same, the return match at Saints’ was a massacre of the aforementioned enroute to our Prescott glory. Ha! I remember them toying with the Hillcrest squad in one of the early matches.
The triumphant 1993 team (as submitted by C.D.) was as follows:
01 – Byron Otieno
02 – Jimmy Karimi
03 – Muniafu (Moon)
04 – Ariba Olembo
05 – Nicholas Macharia (Mache)
06 – Jeff Ngwabe (Fox)
07 – Felix Gichaga (Shaggy)
08 – Russel Odour (Russ)
09 – Tony M‘Barine (Bryo)
10 – Donald Onyango (C.D.)
11 – Ben Opiyo/Felix Gichaga
12 – Joesph Mcharo (Jose)
13 – Eugene Ligale (Genis/Indash)
14 – Cyprian Okwuomi (Kwamse)/ Abuya Tamaro (Anti-Kimbo)
15 – Nicholas Gatei/Cyprian Okwuomi
The ’94 team was great too with Akwabi, Arunga, Bwayo, Magua, Moikobu (Copa II), Muteti (Spondi), Obure (Big), Otieno…apologies…I can’t recall the rest.
They won John Andrews against a great Njoro squad and later The Nationals. I believe Saints retained Blackrock. As defending champs, Prescott was hard-fought but they sadly short and thus begun the severe Prescott drought until the ’99 squad redeemed us.
The expanded Prescott format has revealed that there’s phenomenal rugby talent beyond the original elite four i.e. Lenana (Duke of York), RVA, Nairobi School (Prince of Wales) and Saint Mary’s (Saints)…Mang’u seems to have climbed up the ranks…just giving props where they are due. Win or lose, Lenana will always be a formidable opponent.
Kenyan rugby has featured prominently on the international scene and I’m so proud of our Seven-a-side team that has defeated the best in the world. Looks like there’s much more work to be done with the XVs…
Guaranteed…there are better days to come. We WILL eventually win that 7s World Cup and other notable tourneys! Would be nice if there are a few Former Mean Maroons in that (future) history-making winning squad!
Make us proud guys!!
August 23, 2011 at 9:48 am
MACHINE 2006…EDGED OUT SAINTS IN EVERY TOURNAMENT.THAT WAS THE REASON THEY DINT ALLOW US TO PLAY BLACK ROCK THT YEAR..TEAM OF THE DECADE:
MOSETI
LUGANO
BOSIRE
KANGETHE
WAFULA
SPACE
OTUNDO
OGAGA
NYAMARI
BETT
LUKOYE
AKIRUGA
MWANJA(IRON MAN)
AMBIA
TIMOSHIORI
MUBEA
ZAVAGO
MWAS MJINGA
THE ONLY TEAM TO RESPECT THAT YEAR WAS MANGU. THEY HAD WAT WE HAD BUT WE HAD BETTER IMPLEMENTATION..
September 15, 2011 at 8:11 am
MACHINE 2006…EDGED OUT SAINTS IN EVERY TOURNAMENT.THAT WAS THE REASON THEY DINT ALLOW US TO PLAY BLACK ROCK THT YEAR..TEAM OF THE DECADE:
MOSETI
LUGANO
BOSIRE
KANGETHE
WAFULA
SPACE
OTUNDO
OGAGA
NYAMARI
BETT
LUKOYE
AKIRUGA
MWANJA(IRON MAN)
AMBIA
TIMOSHIORI
MUBEA
ZAVAGO
MWAS MJINGA
THE ONLY TEAM TO RESPECT THAT YEAR WAS MANGU. THEY HAD WAT WE HAD BUT WE HAD BETTER IMPLEMENTATION..
December 24, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Dominant team of the 80’s no doubt rift, dominant team 90’s (at least Early 90’s) in school boys rugby also rift except one year which clearly went toLenana and well deserved. I know, I know what about saints did they not win all those Prescott cups in the early 90’s? They did but I said school boy which is supposed to have age restrictions. My brother played on rift 89 team and I watched against saints I played on rift 91-94 and played against same saint players that my brother did!!!! I was at rift 4 years and made it to finals each year saint won 2 lenana 1 and rift in 94. Lenanas team that won was the better team and the two saint teams were also the better team, but come on saints, are you guys really that proud of those wins, 15,16,17, and 18 year old schools against 20,21 maybe even 22 year old men. Those rift school boys took you young men to the last few minutes of both games and in 94 those rift schools boys took you young saints men to the last minutes of the game and came out victorious. We did loose those two finals against and yes this is an excuse but a good one as for the finals loss we had to lenana I can’t say anything except congradutations to the better team that year. We had overaged players that we did not play, why? Because at rift we won our games and trophies through discipline and all aspects of discipline including “playing by the rules”
March 21, 2012 at 8:31 am
Seriously guyz why am i not hearing about Musingu Boys High school..we were a formidable team in the late 90s…Westerners feared as we were the champs in that territory
April 2, 2012 at 8:39 am
am a sametan fly half.we are a smal school located in nyanza but patch and upper can explain us better.we are in thiz years nationals so here we come.2012.
May 19, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Back in the ’70’s Saints gave a good spanking to all teams out there…but must admit once in a while also got thrashed by RVA.
June 29, 2012 at 10:59 am
RVA Rugby, team from 1994 – last time they won prescott cup! My brother was kicker, straight down the middle baby! Ok thats my two cents.
October 6, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Saints was always the best and most loved by the chicks….
February 7, 2013 at 8:19 am
We just need to admit that Patch has all the passion and love about rugby.That is why would always be patcherians till death do us apart.I did play rugby but I am now.So for all you hating,know we carry the history of rugby in Kenya.It does matter whether we have won but where the passion is.
April 13, 2013 at 12:22 pm
rugby will forever be a patcherians sport in kenya.we took a breather from the scene since 2007 but we are back with a bang.we made it to the 2012 national se7en aside tournament and carried away saints blackrock trophyt.this year our boys have done us proud by yet again goin to rep nrb at the national 15s.watch out as we bring the national trophy back to its home