Poor reception after kick-off troubled Impala. Bradley Ochieng spilt the ball forward, offering perfect opportunity for Omedo Richard to collect and score under the posts. He converted to place Strathmore ahead with only seconds played in the match. Allowing the students to get ahead from kick off gave them the impetus and defiance. Their confidence sky-rocketed & for 17 minutes proved difficult to perforate. It took patience and mounds of experience for Impala to register 5 points. Samson Onsomu scored Impala’s opener at the flag but Quinto Ongo’s boot failed to level matters. Pinning Strathmore in their own half worked for the Gazelles. Steve ‘Biggie’ Juma grounded the ball after a skilfully set maul. Ongo’s boot failed to shine yet again under the Madaraka sun. Impala would thereafter seem to choose to allow Strathmore entry into their half. The students piled pressure on Impala defence. Soon enough, the Gazelles caved in. Indiscipline cost Impala when Nyandigisi was shown yellow for starting a scuffle in own half. What followed was punishment through Omedo’s boot which levelled scores.
HT: Resolution Impala Saracens Gazelles 10-10 Strathmore Leos
Although Omedo split the posts to push the students 13-10 ahead in the sunrise minutes of this half, Nyandigisi swatted 3 defenders to scoring at a vantage point for Ongo to convert. Billy Omondi’s fearless attitude came alive 5 minutes later. On reception and faced with 3 defenders to overcome, the centre tucked in the ball, straightened his line of attack and roughed all of them out of the contest. Ongo’s boot found the two points. Although the hosts scored an unconverted try through Clinton Imbuye, it was not enough to stop an Impala outfit that had now gathered momentum; Ongo kicked over for 3 points, went on to burn 50 metres of the patchy field to score at the corner and converted with sweetness. Nyandigisi registered his brace in the sunset minutes of the match. Ongo’s attempt at garnering the extras went short.
FT: Resolution Impala Saracens Gazelles 39-18 Strathmore Leos
Resolution Impala Saracens Veteran & Resolution Insurance Group CEO – Peter Nduati:
Seconds after kick off – Strathmore strolled into the try box after the fullback lost the ball forward. At that moment, I thought we were done. I have to laud our forward who did well to keep grinding the ball. We should have performed better in the line-out though. We would also need to work on our break-down. The students who were fleet footed surprised us with turnovers. At the end of the day though, what matters is the win. And we won convincingly.
The Kenya Cup Table As At 23rd March 2019
1. Kabras – 64
2. KCB – 64
3. Kenya Harlequins – 49
4. Nondescripts – 41
5. Resolution Impala Saracens – 40
6. Stanbic Mwamba – 39
7. Top Fry Nakuru – 37
8. Menengai Oilers – 27
9. Menengai Cream Homeboyz – 27
10. BlakBlad – 16
11. Strathmore – 14
12. Mean Machine – 11