Barthes Trophy: Sweet revenge as Kenya hits Namibia to advance to the final

Kenya U20 national team Chipu edged their Namibia counterparts 24-13 in a highly contested Barthers Trophy semifinal match played at the Nyayo National Stadium on Wednesday evening. This was a repeat of last year’s semifinal where Namibia held off Kenya 16-5 to proceed to the finals. Kenya would claim fifth place after thrashing Madagascar 49-15.

Both sides scored commanding wins in their opening matches, with Namibia whitewashing Zambia 20-12 while Kenya overpowered neighbors Uganda 44-20 to advance to the semis.

According to Namibia’s Head Coach Ryan Clinton Alexander, his side has now overcome the challenge of the inconsistent Nairobi weather. On Saturday 22 when they won 20-12 against Zambia, the weather was so inconsistent that it rained at one point.

Kenya on the other hand was enjoying home advantage and was backed by a noisy home support.

The game was off to a slow start, with the opening minutes characterised with an exchange of kicks between the sides. Kenya also had not-so-good lineouts and committed a number of handling errors that saw them penalised and Namibia collected the opening three points.

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That would spice up the match, and the visitors kept piling pressure on the Kenyans forcing them to infringe again but this time Namibia failed to collect the points.

Play was on again and towards the end of the opening half, flyhalf Eddy Wambugu opened the scores for Kenya with a converted try to see the halftime scores at 7-3.

Chipu came in hot in the closing half, displaying beautiful set-pieces that further weakened the Namibians. Curtis Olago's charges scored the second try through Raymond Chacha of Strathmore Leos that was converted by fly half Eddy Wambugu.

They would then infringe to earn the Namibians three more points. Kenyans responded with a converted try courtesy of scrum half Patrick Wainaina. One more try followed for Chipu but was cancelled due to a tap and go error at the whitewash.

Kenyans went on to score through Edmond Omondi that was converted by Patrick Wainaina to see the scores climb to 24-13 before the sound of the final whistle leading to glorious scenes from fans across the stadium.

Chipu will now face U20 Barthes Cup defending Champions Zimbabwe on Sunday 30 in the finals. Zimbabwe registered an emphatic 60-06 win over helpless Tunisia.

What is even more motivating for Kenya is the ultimate prize of participating in the World Rugby U20 Trophy which will be played in Nairobi from 15-30 July. The U20 Barthes Trophy is the Africa U20 Championship that also serves as the qualification tournament for the World Rugby U20 Trophy.

Ivory Coast beat Madagascar in the first fifth-place semifinal of the ongoing U20 Barthes Trophy competition. The West Africans led 9-3 at the break before winning the game 16-10. They will face Zambia who beat Uganda 23-15.