The Gazelles could have been 20-0 up within the first 15 minutes of play but individual handling errors successfuly kept them away from the lead. It however took a return to composure, phase play & grinding the ball before Mark Kwemoi split Mwamba defence in the 39th minute. Xavier Kipng’etich’s boot missed the posts. Halftime: Resolution Impala Saracens 5-0 Mwamba.
Kipng’etich’s missing of the posts on a penalty attempt advised change of kicking roles. Mark Kwemoi booted his first attempt at the posts clean, sending Impala 8 points clear. Mwamba were good with forward play but not excellent with the finishing. A turn over in Impala 22 opened up opportunity for what could be described as try of the weekend. Anthony Nyandigisi collected it from Kipng’etich. He passed it to Samuel Motari. Motari whipped it out to Billy Omondi. Omondi took out his defender & released Derrick Mayar who raced more than 25 metres to score. Kwemoi converted! 15-0 Impala. Dan Ndome got his name on the scorers sheet – a beautiful try scored off ferocious ball carrying. Kwemoi missed the extras. Resolution Impala Saracens fans would have expected that Impala’s scoresheet went untainted, but David Oluoch scored. George Mutuku converted beautifully. Impala replied through Derrick Mayar & thus recording his brace. Kwemoi converted! Mwamba pulled one through George Oluoch. Mutuku failed to convert, but it was too late. Kwemoi capitalized on Mwamba’s inability to maintain discipline at the scrumdown. He drilled through the match – closing penalty.
FT: Resolution Impala Saracens 30-12 Mwamba RFC
Resolution Impala Saracens Backs Coach – Oscar Osir:
That was an atrocious first half. Ridiculous. Mwamba played well in bits and pieces. Every time we made a mistake, Mwamba got into the game. I must laud the recovery in the second half though. Homeboyz is a different type of ball game, but this is a journey for us. We’ll work on our skill. From a structure persepective, so far so good.
Mwamba RFC scrum-half – George Mutuku
I think Impala just played their structures right. They had the front foot when they took the ball into contact. Their first phase is good. Mark Kwemoi, the full back fielded kicks really well. We lost this match when we didn’t take great care of our first phase. Our line-out and scrum definitely need some tweaking.