Normally, Saturday mornings find me basking behind Serengeti hostel with other professional idlers led by Chacha,Mogire and the number one “basker!”Obadiah,I swear this guy loves to bask so much that he will be found lying down like a giant monitor lizard even when its raining. as usual, we discuss politics of the week,football,campus politics, complain about the little HELB money and concessionary who is getting laid by who or who is laying who in campus or watch those taking what is known the walk of shame,ie those from sleep-overs. It was during our usual hang at the jobless corner that I got a call from my one good friend Dansoh the most cheeky computer geek asking if I could urgently go to a new joint called THE GREENLAND CONSERVANCY, just a few hundred meters from campus and could I please go with my camera?
I thought its some news he wanted me to cover and with the lecturers strike on and fellas so idle, we are never short of news. Unfortunately, my camera was away taking photos of bikini clad bi*ches at Mombasa beaches with the tourism class so I informed him it was not possible until I heard him mention something like the rugby team bash! It was not a chance to be wasted on a Sarto that seemed to have been determined to take 34hrs to reach evening. On a record breaking 20 minutes I was good to go. Kenyan men and goat-roasting bashes! On my way to the place, there was this kind of excitement on the road from Runda to Total and I could see the skinniest of fellas(I can swear they don’t know the shape of a rugby ball) walking towards the party area pocketing and whistling happily to tunes that they themselves couldn’t recognize! And I can swear that I’m not by any means trying to imply that my joker friend Colloh was among them!
The situation on the ground was equally interesting. As usual,rugde players are huge wild guys who if they bend down and goes on fours could easily be mistaken for rogue rhinos and I’m not referring to Jude, pronounced as “Chut” or Bensoh.So u can imagine a group of huge guys lying low on the wooden benches inside the park talking in deep baritone voices on the bush that Greenland Conservancy is.For once I though im embedded deep in Somalian Puntland with the Kenya army guys out to beat the Shabaab into a pulp. The one factor that kept reminding me that I was amongst some of the most intelligent brains in the country was that unlike the army who they resembled save the uniforms, they talked about things academia.see?the army talk about wars of conquest, their travels around the globe and of course their different encounters with various women of the world.So,it was during one such talk that Johnnie the rugby captain got to give us a lecture on the reason why boys tend to love their mothers more than their dads who they see as competitors and also how a guy named Odipus killed his father just to have his mother all to himself! And to prove Johnnie right Colloh,not the skinny one,colloh wa drama,said that such a though once crossed his (silly!)mind.
All the while, the natural law of the beauty and the beast was applying. You know how it goes between rudge guys and beautiful girls, they are like magnets! Darwin in his evolution theory claimed that male animals fight and the strongest ones survive to mate with the healthiest females for the continuity of the species and the law seems no exception to human beings!Alas,were it not for the side factors like money and social status, some fellas would sadly leave the world without passing their genes! Beauties were in plenty and the best thing is that campus guys go for galz with not only good stuff between their but also between their ears! So that is how I found myself into a debate on various cameras and scene setting mode in photojournalism with one cute Esther, a Nairobi based journalist who I can only contact through colloh as he hindered all the efforts our exchanging the number saying that if we need to consult in anything we do it through him, but never mind, like in investigative journalism, we exchanged numbers right under his very(nosy)nose!Brayoh Omondi my very good friend and fellow blogger was in company of his queen Laurie and Epho was accompanied by his sweetheart too and Jude and his coastal beauty.Danso the rogue bachelor seemed to have a new sweet catch but I’m not in a mode to make quick conclusion on the guy who is married to his number one love, Computers!!
Nico of the eating competition fame was in attendance as noisy and hungry as usual. On a casual chat with Dansoh Ito while away time as we waited for the meal, I got to find out a short history of this group of great young men.
INSIDE LIFE OF THE NUC RUGBY PLAYERS(THE MORANS),LIFE IN AND OUT OF THE PITCH.
The team was founded by Danson Gichui,John mugi and Alexie mwangi on their first week in campus as freshmen in 2009.They encouraged the rest to join. They had several challenges as it was the first time that majority of the players were playing the game and only about 3 knew about the game. Rugby is not a game of the weak minded or weak bodied and so they had to embark on a military-style of training to harden and toughen up the players. Stuff that turns mamas boys into commandos in the pitch. Due to the hard and tough training procedure that saw them running for around 10kms on daily basis, majority dropped out and the tough got going on.
The fist ever game they were beaten a shameful 43 to 0 by a local team of some idlers from Narok town so u can see the distance they had to go before being men in terms of rugby players.Sadly,they had no coach or a field and they had to contribute their own money to buy balls. A trend that goes on up to today as the school only provided them with two very old balls which saw them contributing money almost on daily basis to have them sewn due to puntures.But on their persistence they have really moved on to the point of almost beating the national champions in the Maseno open tournament.
Life in the pitch is run with military precision with the captain calling the shots backed up by the disciplinian.Rugby being a very emotional game due to the numerous push and shoves involved, requires strict code of discipline else the pitch would turn into another battle field. Its not uncommon to see players exchange blows. The unwritten rule that everyone has to follow irrespective of their position in the team is that whatever time that one arrives later than the said time on the pitch either by 30 or one second, you have to take 5laps around the field.
The players, due to the hardships involved or what they undergo together has made them to stick together as brothers and even out of the pitch you will find that they are drinking buddies and often you find them passing time together and woe unto you if you decide to fight any one of them outside in the clubs for you will never know where the rest will come from.
They are also a generous lot with not only big bodies but also big hearts take for instance yesterdays bash were the number of those that were invited and are not rugby players was almost double the team members.They contributed all the money and invited people just to feast on the goat.
Here is the list of the players in detail.
| NAME | DESIGNATION | POSITION |
| John mugi(jonie) | captain | Winger/center |
| Danson gichuhi (dansoh/head) | Organizing sec | fly half |
| Brian kiprop(brayo) |
| prop |
| Cyrus rotich(cyroh) | Ass captain | Scrum half |
| Paul nthiwa(kamuma) |
| hooker |
| Kelvin kipruto(small) |
| Winger/center |
| Alex mwangi(alekie) | Team manager | Winger/center |
| Benson githui(head.master) |
| second rows |
| Livingstone lugaka(kuku) |
| fullback |
| Kevin magiri(big) | disciplinarian | Eighth man |
| Collins kamau(head.gear) |
| prop |
| Nickodemus matara(niko) |
| winger |
| Kennedy kibata(kennie) |
| hooker |
| Jude barasa(chut) |
| center |
| Wallela tulienge |
| Winger/center |
| Brian omari(omar) |
| scrumhalf |
| Augustine mukhwana |
| center |
| Kevin akoko(bush) |
| secondrows |
| Brian omondi(maGUYZ) |
| flanker |
| Emmanuel ochieng(unfit) |
| flanker |
| Robert wafula(chonjo) |
| Flanker/winger |
| Michael kidiori(mike) |
| Flanker/secondrows |
Many are the times one’s life has been changed by their participation in what they love doing. Take for example many national players who are making fortune in the game and they are already enrolled in the universities and it’s not the degrees that is giving them millions.
Back to the bash, meal time saw a mountain of ugali and copious amounts of various flavor of juice served by Johnie the capie and meal time saw Sailoh,Brian Kiprop Johnie and Esther take to the serving box and overfill our plates with sembe,mbuzi fry,veges and kachumbari.There was plenty in store with the bold and shameless going for the second helping like kina Chacha and Kelvo big going for several helpings which is not a crime anyway.
Lugaka,Kennie and Mwas proved to have diplomas and higher diplomas in roasting goat legs and heads to create soup out of them and just like in the traditional dowry negotiations ceremonies where one never got to finally know the destination of such parts of meat, nobody got to know the exact final destination of the head meat meant for the elders.
All along, Morris mwenda,my companion got everything covered in video and I promise you that everything from those quick pecks and kisses in the bush were also captured and the video will soon be available in this court and the newly created rugby players fan page in the Facebook.
Until the next issue I remain yours faithful,
“Team editor”
