A challenging and uncharacteristically quiet 2024/25 15s season for KCB Rugby was summed up with a third place in the Kenya Cup, second place in the Eric Shirley Shield (ESS) Cup, and a semifinal finish in the Enterprise Cup.History would struggle to find the last time KCB Rugby lost an ESS Cup final until Saturday, 5 April, when they went down 12-15 to Menengai Oilers to end their dominance.Follow our WhatsApp channel for more newsPART 2: A look inside CAF stadium regulations Kenya Stadia must meetEarly in the season, KCB parted ways with long-serving coach Curtis Olago, whose contract expired, and the club revealed that it would not be renewed. That marked the end of Olago’s 13-year tenure with the side.They hired Oliver Mang’eni, a former KCB and Kenya Simbas player who was then acting as the team’s lineout coach.Mang’eni has since had a campaign with its fair share of hurdles as his charges lost 25-17 to Kabras in the regular season, and suffered a 31-8 defeat to Menengai Oilers at the semifinals. The result saw them miss a slot at the Kenya Cup final.The Bankers further went down 25-21 to Kabras RFC in the Enterprise Cup semis, getting knocked out of the Main Cup contention.##NAJAVA_MECA_8841565##Now that the dust has settled on a mixed fortunes season, Mozzart Sport had a chat with the ‘Lineouts Master’, who shared their season.As a former player himself, Mang’eni offers a different perspective on decision-making during high-stakes matches.He believes that when opportunities present themselves, players should have the confidence to back their instincts and go for tries rather than settling for penalty kicks.Penalties may offer safe points, but they often do not shift the scoreboard significantly in tightly contested matches while tries make all the difference.An example was the ESS final where no try was scored in the match.”I had to step in or watch it die” – Peter Gin on his shock return to Nzoia Sugar FC“For our ESS match, the players just needed confidence to win. We started so slow but they only needed to take their chances and score tries. I am not a big believer in penalties. I believe in going to the corner and grinding a win. They were not as confident as they needed to be to win, and that is what you get. That wraps up our season,” he offered.The tactician has been at the helm for a season and reveals that one of the major challenges was getting all the players to adapt and perform within a unified system. He has to align everyone to execute under one structured style of play.“Coaching is not very easy because you want 23 players to think like you on the field. It is a matter of players buying into your ideology and philosophy which I believe we are almost achieving. We still have a crop of young players who will come in and push this club to prosperity,” he revealed.##NAJAVA_MECA_8841600##Despite the setbacks, Mang’eni remains optimistic about the future. He revealed that the technical bench is keen on injecting fresh talent into the squad to build a formidable side that will compete strongly in the 7s circuit.“We have had trials, and are also looking around. For this club to be stable and have a future, we need to inject new blood. We have very good 7s players and going forward, we will contend for the 7s title,” he disclosed.His message to the boys?“They need to keep their head high and reflect, look at what did not work, review, and focus on the why. Once we get solutions to our problems, this club will be back on its feet,” he concluded.Nakuru RFC announces dates for 2025 Great Rift 10sMang’eni played for the Bankers for 12 years, from 2010 until he retired at the end of the 2022 Kenya Cup season. He also played for Shujaa in the 2014–2015 season.He is a serial winner, having claimed the Kenya Cup a record five times—in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022. He won the Enterprise Cup on three occasions—in 2015, 2016, and 2017—and has five floodlit titles under his belt—in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2019.
