Time for Nakuru RFC to restore lost glory

Nakuru RFC players during a training session at Nakuru Athletics Club on June 10,2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

Even the giants feared visiting the butchering field of Nakuru Athletic Club when Nakuru RFC was a team to reckon with!

This is when the visiting teams got disappointed when faced with crucial national assignments.

These teams feared returning home empty-handed after weeks of rigorous training that gave their players hope of breaking the jinx that had eluded several champions and defending champions.

And Nakuru RFC made the life of visiting teams a nightmare when playing at their backyard-that's Nakuru Athletic Club in 2013-2016.

Those are the years when they won the Kenya Cup League and the National Sevens Circuit for two consecutive seasons in 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 and went ahead to win the Enterprise Cup, besides providing a bulk of their players to national teams for various international assignments.

And by then, the team attracted great sponsorship from the corporate world, and their players were trained by highly qualified coaches who included Dominique Habimana, Jotham Owili and Mitch Ocholla, among others.

Nakuru RFC players during a training session at Nakuru Athletics Club on June 10,2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

At the time, all rugby events hosted in their backyard attracted a full house of all the top local sides during the Prinsloo Sevens, and others came beyond the borders at the time of the Great Rift-10-Aside Championships.

As a result, teams envied Nakuru RFC and wanted to know the secret behind their successes.

And in studying the successes of the club, others were scheming how to end their dominance in the local scene in one way or the other.

First, they raided their den while poaching their top players who were offered better packages.

Thereafter, Nakuru RFC suffered the departure of the head of the technical bench, Dominique Habimana, to Kenya Harlequin before losing a number of key sponsors, leading to the dismal performance that has prevailed at the club to date.

Nakuru RFC players during a training session at Nakuru Athletics Club on June 10,2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

However, all is not lost, as the club management is determined to restore its lost glory in the fight for top honours.

It started with the acquisition of new sponsors in Smart Applications, who have so far injected millions of shillings into the club's financial kitty, a development that was led by the club patron, Andrew Musangi.

"And with this, we need to see positive results in your league assignments and other tournaments, as we hope to see you returning to your usual waters in the Kenya Rugby scene," Musangi told reporters at the unveiling of the new sponsors at Nakuru Athletic Club last year.

This new development ensured the club survived relegation from the Kenya Cup League in the 2024/2025 season and thereafter reached respectable positions in the subsequent national assignments.

And as the 2025 National Sevens Circuit gets closer, the team started serious training to recapture this title again, a decade after they last did it.

"We have been training here for the last three weeks for us to gain our full fitness before we get to serious business when the first leg of the National Sevens Circuit kicks off," said assistant coach Sevens side Donald Aluoch.

Nakuru RFC players during a training session at Nakuru Athletics Club on June 10,2025. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

It starts with the Driftwood Sevens at Mombasa Sports Club on July 26-27.

The team recorded a full house training in their training save for four players who are with the national team in Mauritius for the Africa Sevens Championships.

They are Felix Okoth, Phillip Okeyo, Javan Otieno and Chris Ojwang.

"Whether the four national team players are with us or not will not affect our training sessions because we are determined to get full fitness before the tournament starts," he said.

Aluoch said they have an eight-week strategy that should see them achieve all their training strategies.

"That is the minimum time that should allow us to achieve full fitness before we get to serious business," said the coach.

Aluoch said every player would be given a chance to exploit their talents.