The national under 20 rugby 15s side, Chipu, have booked their place in the final of the 2023 Barthes Cup after a 24-13 win over Namibia in their semi-final duel on Wednesday evening at Nyayo Stadium.
The juniors were looking to revenge for last year’s heartbreak after they lost 16-5 to the Southern Africans at the same stage of the competition.
They were relentless from kickoff, camping in Namibia’s defensive area in the first 15 minutes as they sought to draw first blood.
However, it was their opponents who surged in front in the 20th minute courtesy of a Ethan Koopman penalty, which earned them a 3-0 lead and seemed to have swung the momentum temporarily in their favour.
The home boys seemed to have run out of ideas, increasingly barging into the stone wall that is the Namibian defence as they searched for a way back into the match.
That breakthrough came in the dying embers of the first half courtesy of a lineout from which Eddy Wambugu ended over the white line to score Kenya’s first try that he converted to change the scoreline to 7-3 in favour of the hosts.
Namibia began the second half in the same fashion with which they had turned the tide on Kenya in the first, courtesy of another penalty that saw them regain the lead.
Chipu, however, were in no mood to see their revenge mission abort as Chacha Masega soon put the oval ball onto the white line for another try, which was duly converted to make it 14-10 in favour of the hosts.
It went from bad to worse for the visitors as a penalty in the 52nd minute allowed Patrick Wainaina to widen the gap between the two times with a kick that sailed accurately between the posts.
A yellow card for Namibia’s Owen Hawanga, two minutes later, was just what Chipu needed to apply salt on their opponent’s wounds as first half substitute scored Kenya’s third try to make 22-13.
Once again, Wainaina converted the resultant penalty as the hosts got into the groove, backed by a partisan crowd at the stadium.
As the heavens opened up and drenched the Nyayo turf, Namibia poured forward in an effort to find a way back into the match but were met by a resolute Chipu defence, determined to secure their ticket to the final.
The final whistle brought cheers from the crowd as the players jubilantly hugged each other on the pitch.
A tricky date against defending champions Zimbabwe, who thrashed Tunisia 60-6 in an earlier semi-final tie, awaits on Sunday, with the opportunity to compete at the World Junior Championships set for Nairobi in July this year.
