Big bash for rugby festival

Paul Munyuki Sport Reporter
AN explosive end is expected at the Dairibord Schools Rugby Festival at Prince Edward this afternoon with big team clashes set for Jubilee Field.
Following high intensity games on Thursday, most of the traditional rugby giants — Prince Edward, St John’s College, Churchill, St George’s, Peterhouse, Eaglesvale and Kyle College — are again expected to bring the curtain down in style.
The climax is expected to start just around lunch time when Falcon College take on Lomagundi with St John’s College facing Eaglesvale while Churchill date St George’s and Prince Edward take on Peterhouse in the main game of the festival.

Only three teams — Falcon College, Prince Edward and St George’s — are yet to suffer defeat.
Saints coach Brandon Brider said they were not taking the Bulldogs lightly.

“Churchill are definitely one of the top sides here and Saturday (today) is going to be tough for me because I feel that Prince Edward and Churchill are the best sides this year and we are playing Churchill and it’s going to be a very, very hard game.

“It is always good to win, but the performance is not exactly what we wanted, the guys won because we always play the game to win,” said Brider.
Churchill assistant coach Bob Mahari believes his side will give it their all.

“It was a disappointing loss (against Eaglesvale) but not all days are sunny days and, hopefully, this is the end of the rain because we have worked on what we need to improve on.

“It’s about working hard both physically and mentally.”
However, it is the game between Peterhouse and Prince Edward that should illuminate the festival.

Since last year, Prince Edward have not lost a game at the festival and assistant coach Sean de Souza knows that keeping this record is going to be a tough task.
“We are excited about playing Peterhouse, who are very structured, they played very well, their patens are looking good and solid defence structures but our score against St John’s College did not really reflect how they played.

“Peterhouse are a strong side, they finished as the top side in the schools league, we finished fourth, so we have a lot of work to do but we are looking forward to three out of three which is our realistic goal.’

Eaglesvale are coached by Sables assistant coach Cyprian Mandenge and have arguably the fastest backline in terms of speed with centre Newton Tanyanyiwa also able to play number eight giving the coach a lot of options against St John’s College.

“St John’s is just like any other team so we are taking it like any other game but we have a decent defence and we need to find the attack because we have not really been on the attack but we have to play right from the first whistle.

“That they (St Johns College) lost (to PE) and we won (against Churchill) in our previous games is now water under the bride and we have to respect the opposition so I am sure we will give our all and fight till the end,” said Mandenge.