 That is now the current chairman of the Kenya Rugby Union, Obrol Ganga speaking to Maxwell Waseke on what he intends to do for the Kenya Rugby Union. Now joining us here in studio right now is one of the elected directors for the Kenya Rugby Union, our friend here on Touchland and usually comes to analyze some of the big news in the rugby world, that is Mali Muki Kechi Combo, who is here to talk to us about everything Kenya Rugby Union and the big question now, the election is done and the big question is, what is next for Kenya Rugby Union? Garibu Sana Mali Muki and that's where we start with you. Thank you for the election, thank you so much. The big question is, what's next for Kenya Rugby Union, considering now that the election is done, everything is done, now it's back to business and we have a mandate as a board and as everyone else at the Kenya Rugby Union, plus all the stakeholders to do something for the Kenya Rugby Fraternity, so what is next for Kenya Rugby Union? There's quite a number of things, like now the league is ongoing, they have to continue and finish the fixtures, then from there we're also having test matches coming up, Kenya, the gold cup and also we find that in the next two weeks we'll be hosting a car under 20, so the board will be setting up the teams at the Kenya Rugby Union, find they do the booking and also have the conducive environment for the tournament to kick off. You find that these are an African tournament, you find that the whole world will be focusing to see, these are the future guys will be playing for the national, these are the guys who will be putting the African rugby on the world map in future, so we'll be able to see how we'll be able to perform, shall our team also be able to do well, the guys who've grown to the development, they are being given a chance, so they'll be able to show us where we are in the African rugby at the end of the tournament. Some of the major problems, most of the current problems that the Kenya Rugby Union was going through was player welfare, from what we have had from the chairman now, Mr. Odoor Ganga, is all about getting the player welfare back on track and some of the senior players, what boycotted their training and now back into the team, what is the feeling like from some of the reliable sources at the Kenya Rugby Union? Are these players now back and are they training for more so the Asia tour, which will be going to Hong Kong and Singapore? Yeah, it's good news for the Kenya Rugby, the players are back and now they have realized now it's time to play and who will never want to play next year. We can be out for some time and you find that if Kenya gets relegated and opportunities come up next year, so it will also be blaming themselves for saying, oh I think we could have played but it's good that the management and the Kenya Rugby Union official talk to the players and they are back but they still the talk is ongoing and we are happy that they are ready in the camp. Even today in the morning they are in training and the coaches and the team managers are happy. So we focused to do well despite being in a very tough pool in Hong Kong but we hope we'll be able to do well. The first six legs have been not good but you see now it's also good to give the young players an opportunity to play and that also indicates that the Kenya Rugby we are doing the right thing because the guys who are given opportunity when the senior players are not there they are playing good rugby and so probably if we integrate now with experienced players in the remaining legs Kenya will be safe and we'll be out from relegation and I know it will be very hard for Kenya to be relegated. We've been watching the other teams like Wales, Japan playing so far but you see now we didn't have the experienced players coming up so if now they are there definitely we'll be out of relegation and that will be good for next year to maintain our status at the IRB series. Yeah actually one of the major things that came out when the senior players boycotted the training and not playing for the Kenya Rugby was that gap between the experienced players and the players who are now joining the team should be coming up. As someone now who will be one of the people making major decisions considering how development will be going on how will you be dealing with this in a sneak preview more so in development rugby so that we don't get that big gap between the experienced players and the younger players who are joining the senior team. Yeah okay yeah well I've been developing the way you've said with the comrades HG Rugby we are from under 10 under 14 under 15 that's a very vibrant project and we've seen now put the first budget that already now graduating to senior to club Kenya Cup teams. Yes. You've seen like Kevin Guambanao playing for homeboys RFC Amonua Malwa. It's a guys who've grown from HG Rugby winning East Africa and coming back on now playing for number 10 at homeboys. We also have others in Daniel Okito, half back center at Nondis Makumi now captaining the Strathamore RFC. These are guys who've come through age grade Paul Musami at Impala playing center today I've seen him being given that position. So these are players these are players who have a lot of skills in terms of playing so the best thing is we will get it's good to get players get involved in in many tournaments and also given an opportunity. For example if the car tournament is there we give we give a youthful team to go and represent the country so from there they'll be able to get that experience whenever a call up comes up that they are supposed to represent the country find that they are ready because they have already have that exposure and they'll not be having that stage fright in terms of when they are playing in big stadiums across the world. And then as we're still speaking and you heard there the German saying that right now when you're going to the corporate it's not about visibility alone it's all about giving them a chance to show them that this is what they can do and some of the companies out there are also into youth empowerment. When you look at our link between high school rugby and university and college rugby going on to the professional rugby how is that link so far? Well the the gap is not that big because there's that youth progressive but you see now that we need to have something but a smooth transition from one level to one other and like high school rugby we need to have more franchise tournament than just having schools holding to their own school team to going all the way to East Africa I think at a certain level whereby we are done with the county with the county games we give the selectors an opportunity to pick the best teams and then the best players then team up and then they go and represent that particular county at the region. I think that that one does something good like times we played Cumbra's played academy under 14 played South African team at KRU that was sometime 2014 and finally these players made at the airport and within one day they already had gelled and they were playing because of what they are used with the playing of the franchise tournaments so we are so far we select people are holding so much on their own but if we can be able to go and integrate now and bring in the issue of the franchise I think that would be something good for the Kenyan rugby. Talking about franchise rugby one of the major countries that have managed to put franchise rugby on the map as to the South Africa you see what they do with their orange what they do with their companies that they have a very serious franchise rugby down there how can we do it because here in Kenya we've got all our tournaments we've got the stand-by series the circuit that usually goes on we've got the Kenya Cup matches that are going on today I think March day 14 right now but how can we get to franchise rugby? Just simply putting up the structure then we involve the stakeholders once the stakeholders have been involved and we come up with a fixture for the franchise to be playing then we adjust the the fixture the national fixture so that at the end of the day we know now from this particular tournament we are done with this so we move on the franchise if it's given us a period of its own then it'll be able to pick up very well but so that people teams team managers can be able to prepare for that then we have select us also who will be able to bring them together I think that that that that will be workable and it'll also be on the on the on the national fixture yeah then probably the corporates also coming up I can't respond because that's the biggest problem once we don't have the sponsor for that then now it comes something difficult to work on corporates for them they are there just showing them that how good are you and how can we help you out it's usually a matter of what can you give me and what can I give you back and Kenya rugby you know has been getting a fair share of their corporate but at the moment usually stuff but you've got some of the best corporate like the circuit corporate is doing very well yeah and Kenya Kapuna you've got a tv sponsor yeah sure and rugby is being visible in the country but now let's talk about high school rugby because that's your expertise that's your area of expertise what is your secret also with your high school yeah I find it you just have a program and once you have a workable program for the players definitely be able to pick up and being working with a boarding school it's far much better than working with a day school where sometimes players go home they find some problems on the way probably miss school so we find that if a player doesn't be in school you find you can't be able to carry out your training properly but the best thing is for you to have a training program with your players you find that you give them the training schedule and they be there on time this probably a day for just conditioning the day for ball work there's a program a day for attack for defense working on the kicks and all that so that each player can be which player knows which area is working on and improving and you keep on observing them so that that's what has been so long as you tell them and give them a program you will never succeed but once you don't have a good program for for the team then they won't be able to do well so I've succeeded going all the way to win East Africa with Mohori Mishiri that's a non-school not playing rugby but you find that they are playing rugby well yeah sure call for it for nationals in Mombasa and they'll be playing from 7th to 14th in Mombasa and probably we hope they'll do well and again qualify for East Africa in Mwanda in August that's a big one for you but there was some major development from the Kenya secondary schools that came around here where they were they were cutting off the the numbers of the players that were going to play I think in the under 15 they were getting now players to I think 17 20 20 23 and also in the 7th they were cutting you to 11 instead of 15 how is that one going to affect you guys when you are preparing for all this tournament that you are going for well it will be able to affect and this the problem is that probably the people who are making the decision they are not well versed with the game itself because what does the world rugby rule say about the the players they have done the experience from year to one year to another and come up to say that the number of players for 15 hours are supposed to be 23 but you see now they're talking of course the emerging of the games these are different games and they are denying opportunity for players to play and they're putting into putting the same tournament at the same time initially it was okay 15 was first time second time or seven but see now the matches the game is seven and 15th play go currently so you find that one week a tournament is played then the whole year there's no there's no rugby in high school that's something very bad whereby they could have just talked with the experts and then go down be told about the world rugby rule what does rugby world the world rugby rule say about the seven the sevens format here supposed to be 12 of players but see now like now they have added one non-traveling player to assist because they know they might yeah anything can happen the magnitude of the game is changing and it's more scientific and they need a number of players World Cup you see the teams will travel over 30 players traveling for World Cup in Japan coming up in this year so they they they they they they they it's not informed it's going to affect the game and I find that this one's going so going to create fatigue to some of the players 11 players so for example if you get two players get injured they're out of the tournament or three so you have eight players and you're playing sevens so what happens now what happens if probably the first players who got into injured they are the the forward players front row and local subs they are who carry the front because they are more prone to injuries so that may definitely that team will be out of competition if you have the three forward players go to injured so that's where the problem is and it's not good for the game and it's something now the rugby union as a rugby union we are now supposed to take the audience of the ministry of education we talk to him then we explain to him about the changes not good for for the sport so that we go back they give them the three number of players to travel to the tournament and also seven be given the 12 players to travel yeah that will be a major conversation for another day because now we are talking about the curriculum you're also talking about academics and how to fuse these things together and make them work we've got big tournaments coming we've got test matches the gold cup is also underway and we have the car under 24 hour team yeah in all this tournament how do you see the progress of kenya rugby union right now because now we'll be put up with main tournaments and we are supposed to perform yeah and our players ready more so the young players because now they have been put into the major experience they think the series circuit is the best experience you can be thrown into as a player yeah I think when you look at the the progress of the kenyan rugby it's beyond the rise when you look at the 15th team he called for him for the first time in history that was a very big achievement initially we had never done that and finally this time round the kenyan team will manage to do that so during the test match I see them doing well because having gained that experience playing against Germany playing against Canada and Hong Kong you find they have gained a lot of experience and it's so if that continues and we have good training program for the national team we'll be able to overrun the other teams this time around the under 20 team reach the finals of last year the car so probably now they are hitting to win the to win the trophy and more so they have a lot of support here at home also the test matches coming up I hope kenyan will be able to do well depending with the teams they'll be able to invite and that one will also make us to improve on the ranking of the 25 across the world we had come to 22 and I know if the year goes well probably with the chairman coming in the guy who is marching from yeah we can make it top 20 and then we'll be able to get grand from the war rugby as we finish our next tour will be the Asian tour will be playing Hong Kong and then Singapore our senior players are back they are training hard and they have to face with the young players what are our chances are we going back to our usual position the top 10 yeah probably Hong Kong might be a bit difficult because of that particular group but with good training the coaches have known the players are gelling up probably we'll be able to learn from that particular mistake that will be gravely in Hong Kong but in Singapore that's our hunting ground we won in 2017 the players might want to bring the glory back so I see Singapore will do well and we'll be able to probably we'll be definitely we'll be among the top 10 in Singapore well San Moalimu for coming here on the touch right now it is a very big weekend for Moalimu here plus the board they are going to come up and do something for kenyan rugby because this is their time and we hope them and we wish them success as they are going as we told you it is going to be a big night here in Nairobi it's Nairobi fight night and Fatuma Zareka will be flying the kenyan flag when we come back we'll be doing a sneak preview of what will be happening tonight in boxing but before that let's listen in and watch judy wagoodi one more boxing heroes here in kenya