Change of guard awaits Kenya rugby union

This year is set to be an event-filled year in the local rugby scene with the key highlight being the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) elections to be conducted during the KRU, Annual General Meeting in March.

The polls, which will see a change of guard at the helm of the country’s rugby governing body, will be key in determining the Kenyan rugby course for the next four years.

Former Kenya rugby Union Vice Chair and director Sasha Mutai a top candidate for chairmanship has outlined his key priorities that he seeks to implement should he be elected boss of the Ngong road-based federation.

Ahead of the HSBC Seven’s World series 3rd and 4th legs set for this weekend and next weekend in Hamilton and Sydney, that have seen several heavyweights excluded from the Paul Murunga assembled team, Mutai exonerated senior players from blame for not signing contracts.

Meanwhile, the national 15’s team Simbas will this year be involved in the re-branded Africa Gold Cup as they seek to atone for their 2018 un-doings when they failed to book a slot at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

Starting July 2019, the Gold Cup will adopt a new format where the eight sides will be divided in two pools of four each with matches of each pool taking place in one country in a round-robin format.

Winners of each pool will then face off in the final and the team with a better point-tally in the preliminaries will host the decider in November.

At the same time, the national under-20 team will also be in action in 2019 as they seek to wrestle the Barthes Cup from holders Namibia and book a slot at the 2019 Junior World Rugby Trophy in Brazil.