Catholic Monks in real relegation fight but hold onto hope, prayers

Catholic Monks head coach John Isalambo has acknowledged the hard task ahead for the varsity team as they fight tooth and nail to avoid the relegation, with three matches before the completion of the regular season.

Monks fell 30-10 to Nondescripts in a rescheduled Kenya Cup match played at the Catholic University grounds in Nairobi and will have to put in a hard shift in their final three matches of the season starting with Nakuru RFC this coming weekend.

“At the moment being in the relegation zone of course is a tough spot, we have Nakuru this weekend so the only option we have is to win,” he saisd. “We’ve tried to pull up the boys’ spirit in terms of just playing for each other and playing hard and taking the amount of opportunities that we are getting at every given time in the game.”

Monks have won only one match against bottom of the table Homeboyz RFC in their eight matches played so far and Isalambo has attributed their season’s struggles to the major overhaul of the playing unit this term.

“This season I made a lot of changes; actually 75% of the team comprises new players. The guys who played last season, the older guys have gone and we have some new blood which in the process of having new blood of course you expect the new guys will take time to get the experience of the Kenya Cup season or else the performance has not been as we expected but with time it has been getting better like in the Blak blad game.”

Isalambo who has been with the team since they regained promotion to the Kenya Cup two seasons ago, reckons that the league has been more competitive this year as compared to last year.

“The league has been more competitive compared to the way it was last year. Nondies have just come up from the championship with the muscles that they have as compared to other big boys, they were able to get some new quality players hence their quality has improved compared to where they were when in the championship. So basically the league has been very competitive which is also good for our rugby.”

Monks have a tough ending to the regular season as they travel to Nakuru this weekend to play Nakuru RFC, play away to Strathmore Leos in their consecutive fixture and then complete the season with a game against Menengai Oilers.

Failure to conjure even a single win in those three matches will almost certainly seal the fate of the varsity side who had been promoted to the main league in 2022 after an eight-year hiatus.