St. Peters eye National rugby title after Western success

St. Peter’s Mumias rugby 7s team head coach Nelson Jaka has set his eyes on winning the National title this year.

Jaka’s ambitions come in the wake of their triumph in the Western games, after beating Bungoma High 19-10 in Saturday's final in Mumias.

"The target is always to win the national title because we have not won it for a very long time. The last time we made a mark was in 2019 when we finished third and qualified for the East Africa Games.

The target is to make it to the East African tournament as the least but let me make it clear that we are going to the nationals to fight - tooth and nail -   to be crowned champions this year," the soft spoken Jaka told the Citizen Digital.

According to Jaka, the team’s consistency and togetherness since 2023 has played an important role in their success.

"Training, discipline and also exposure have really been focal points for our success.

We have been playing lots of friendly matches which has instilled some experience and it has helped us work on our mistakes in order to ready ourselves for these school games,” he said.

“Our boys have been taking instructions very obediently and we have been working together since 2019 which has built that gelling and togetherness," the Maths teacher said.

Jaka also hailed his boys for their 'dedication and working hard in training' which enabled them to achieve success.

"It's about consistency and day to day hard work from the boys. Some of them have been sacrificing some days from their half term to remain in the school just to fine-tune their skills and prowess for the game.

Training as a team and commitment has really been key enabling the success we are now enjoying as St Peter's Mumias rugby 7s team,"he enthused.

With the much awaited National Games later this month in Kakamega County, the Saints will be expecting to fight all out to ensure the national title remain in Western as hosts.