Impala coach Louis Kisia believes his charges can finish in the top six in the 2024 -2025 Kenya Cup campaign.
The ten-time champions were relegated two seasons ago from the top tier before making a comeback after finishing top in the championship last season.
This time around, Kisia has set the bar higher for his young charges despite a 33-6 defeat to champions Kabras over the weekend in Kakamega.
“The boys were competitive for long spells and there are positives to take home from that game for the remainder of the season. We have 10 more games to go and I think we can get a couple of wins to be in the playoffs,” Kisia said.
The Kenya Sevens’ assistant coach believes there is room for improvement in decision-making and set-piece for his charges.
“From the Kabras game, our decision-making has to be better in terms of creating chances to score tries. We can also work on our set-piece—both scrum and line out—and be accurate with our throws,” Kisia said.
The Ngong Road outfit next faces a resurgent Blak Blad outfit on Saturday and Kisia has urged his charges to be mentally and physically prepared for a bruising battle.
“Blak Blad are a good side and very resilient and so we know we are in for tough battle.”
Following the Blak Blad fixture, Impala will have a date with South Coast Pirates on December 7 in a rematch of the Championship final, where Pirates won 16-14 in Diani in April this year.
Elsewhere, the Kenya Rugby Union are considering replacing the Eric Shirley Shield competition with a Kenya Under-20 rugby tournament.
The Eric Shirley Shield is a reserve competition for the second-string teams in the Kenya Cup. KRU development officer, Ronald Okoth said with teams not honouring their matches last weekend, they have set up a fixtures and committee meeting later this week to deliberate on the issue.
“Only three clubs— Kabras, KCB and Menengai Oilers are honouring matches while others are not able to travel due to financial challenges. So we will sit down this week and see how we can have a new championship,” Okoth said.
Okoth said the Under 20 competition will be high on the agenda
as players have an opportunity to
play in regular competitions outside those of the national side.
