KRU announces Prescott Cup format changes

The Kenya Rugby Union has announced changes to the format of the 2024 Prescott Cup and will now be played as a knockout tournament following an agreement between the organizers, comprising secondary schools and the union.

KRU’s senior rugby development officer Ronald Okoth says the change of format was informed by the busy schedule of the upcoming term two secondary school games.

“For this term for Prescott we just opted to have it in a small way because for this term the KSSSA are also doing 7s, so we saw that when we do 7s and 15s they tend to get confused. So we opted to have a very short knockout for Prescott which will end within a four weeks’ period so that we go back to 7s. On our side from a development point of view, we are picking players who might have missed a chance to be in the other 15s group.”

Okoth says they have been intentional in collecting enough data from all regions in the country so as to grow a talent base that will serve as a feeder for the national teams.

“For your information this term we are also having primary schools doing rugby but it’s still shelved under Kenya Rugby Union and we are targeting to have Under 15s. Each area we will have nationals and during the ball games that will be in Kakamega we will demonstrate primary schools playing 7s and this is a feeder programme for Biko Adema (15s head coach) so that we have a national team which we have started to have; then we are targeting to have the Futures cup which you will soon hear about.”

Okoth however noted that the existing confusion on the transition from Junior Secondary to Senior Secondary school has curtailed their plans to organize various age grades

“I won’t lie and I will be frank enough to tell you this; we still don’t know how the transition from junior secondary to senior secondary will be done and that’s where we are still not getting it right; but we are opting to keep them to have the data for these kids so that we can use them later.”

This year’s teams have been selected based on the 2022 rankings with top-seed Ofafa Jericho set to play Strathmore School; Upper Hill High School to face Alliance High School with Mangu High playing Nairobi School. Rift Valley Academy has already played their quarter final against Dagoretti High school.

Here are the confirmed dates for the quarter final matches;

Match 1: Ofafa Jericho High v Strathmore School – To be played 25 May 2024 at Strathmore School

Match 2: Rift Valley Academy v Dagoretti High School – To be played 22 May 2024 (played)

Match 3: Mangu High v Nairobi School – To be played 25 May 2024 at Mangu High School

Match 4: Upper Hill High School v Alliance High School – To be played 26 May 2024 (Venue TBC)