Jittery Kabras in another league final, this time against Oilers
The Kenya cup moment of truth is here, former champs Kabras Sugar takes on Menengai Oilers in the most awaited clash of the 2021/22 season to kick off at 3 pm at the Bull ring in Kakamega.
The two sides have effected very minimal changes on the squads that represented them in their respective cup semifinals played last Saturday thus it is predictable that the two sides will play on similar game plans.
Of the two semis, last weekend Menengai Oilers Rugby Club dominated the sporting headlines after they shoved KCB in their major departments including scrum downs and mauls to create opportunities that came along with eight converted penalties.
The eight penalties proved Oilers game plan to be a lethal one and could upset Kabras in case the host fail to stick to plan in a match that Kabras head coach Jerome Muller does not want to give away penalties within the conversion range as a precaution. “Oilers is a good side with good forwards and fast runners so it will be a competitive cup final with little room for errors.
Only our set pieces were not looking sharp as of last weekend because our forwards and backs did not gel well to execute according to plan but we have worked on that in under a week and we are hoping we will play a disciplined game to avoid some of the mistakes we made last weekend and in the previous cup final. They (Oilers) have a good kicker (Geoffrey Ominde) and so we will try and avoid conceding penalties within the kicking range,” Kabras head coach Jerome Muller told Wikendi Sports.
Last weekend, Oilers kicked off with ill intentions to lead 12-7 at the breather before returning to condemn the Bankers to drop to the 3rd/4th playoffs against Strathmore Leos in a match scheduled for 3pm at the KCB Sports club in Ruaraka.
Oilers is not a new opponent to the Sugar Millers owing to recent meetings including the one of last month where Kabras claimed a 32-17 win over the Nakuru based side to give the hosts confidence of earning the title by confirming a double. “The plan is the one that gave us the victory, we were very competitive in the set pieces, our kicker Geoffrey Ominde has also been working hard for such moments so we have looked at Kabras match videos to assist us to come up with a good game plan that will give us the results we want, and that is to win the Kenya cup,” Oilers coach Gibson Weru told Wikendi Sports.
Oilers deployed a hundred percent kicking game that gave the side their maiden cup finals appearance against a finals regular since their promotion back in 2014 and despite the experience, the sugar millers have only won once against Impala in the 2016 title to give the side fresh hopes of reliving that moment.
Godwin Karuga will be centre referee and will be assisted by Moses Ndungu and Constant Cap while in the 3rd place playoff pitting KCB and Strathmore, Noreen Liyosi will officiate the clash assisted by Emmanuel Marete and Innocent Kimathi.
Tickets retail at Ksh 300 for entry into the event that is expected to create a traffic snarl-up on the match day. The match is set to produce a maiden women’s Kenya cup champ shortly before the men’s category produce a new winner.
