The Kenya Cup’s most intense rivalry resumes on Saturday 28 January 2017 with SportPesa Quins hosting Resolution Impala Saracens at the RFUEA Grounds in match day ten action.There never is a dull moment whenever these two sides duel, their fans’ pulse rates increase exponentially on match day, eagerly awaiting the outcome of this match. Their creative juices, wit and sarcasm also come to the fore on social media in the build up to the game. It is inevitable that after the fixture, post-match discussions, lamentations, jokes, compliments, criticisms dominate concurrent conversations over drinks, both soft and hard at The Pavilion and Quins Bar respectively.
This is much more than a game of rugby and the honors associated with it, it is also about the neighborhood bragging rights (only a chain-link fence peppered with kei-apple bush separates the two sides), it is about which side of the fence is silenced.
Away from the sentiment behind this fixture to its purpose. Quins come into this fixture sitting second on the log, gathering 36 points off seven wins and one loss. They started the calendar year with a 10-15 loss away to Menengai Cream Homeboyz but responded in style with a 38-22 bonus point win over a gritty Nondescripts and will probably view that as the sort of build up they needed ahead of the Sarries visit. They will approach this fixture in the full knowledge that a win, coupled with a defeat for current leaders KCB will see them return to the league summit as the race for direct semifinal qualification hots up.
The Sarries, with a game in hand, slipped to fifth after last weekend’s 13-41 home loss to Homeboyz and will come into this fixture seeking a winning response against a side that they last beat in the Kenya Cup on Saturday 22 November 2014, a fixture that they claimed 33-22 on the day. A win could potentially lift last year’s beaten finalists as high as third on the log and give them the much needed impetus with the fixtures coming down thick and fast.
Match day previews and team news will follow in subsequent posts.