Harlequin skin impala

BY BS MULAVI

League leaders and the defending Kenya Cup champions Kenya Harlequin retained pole position on Saturday evening with a hard fought 25-8 victory over neighbours and archrivals Impala RFC at the RFUEA Grounds.

With only two games left before the league draws to a close, the champions look set to retain their title with their closest rivals Nakuru RFC five points adrift with 55 points.

The Rift Valley side kept pace with the indomitable Quins outfit with a 14-6 victory over Homeboyz RFC.

Homeboyz had managed to string together three victories in the second leg of the league, but Nakuru have now broken their stride and they will need to once again dust themselves up and start again with the Bamburi Super Series and the Enterprise Cup next on the agenda after the Kenya Cup concludes.

Meanwhile, Strathmore RFC dropped to fourth position in the table standings after succumbing to a slender 24-22 loss at the hands of Nondies RFC.

It is always a close encounter when the two teams meet and Strathmore were on the receiving end of this clash with the students having the better of the oldest club in the first leg.

Strathmore switches position with Kenya Commercial Bank who had travelled to Kisumu to thump hosts Kisumu RFC 40-16.

The bonus point victory adds their tally to 51 points, nine adrift of the league leaders Quins whom they meet on the third weekend of the month in an epic clash that might decide if Quins will retain the title.

In the upset of the weekend, Mwamba RFC who had last weekend beat the champions 16-13 succumbed to an unprecedented defeat at the mercy of Mean Machine.

The Black Shirts surrendered a 17-13 lead in the second half to eventually lose 25-17.

The Mwamba forwards will take the lion’s share of the blame as they let the students drive over them with two mauls in the dying minutes of the game to grab the vital bonus point victory.

The next round of games are scheduled for Friday evening, with the teams playing the games they had missed in the first round.