Bamburi bolster Series with Sh13.5m
Bamburi Cement Chief Excutive Officer Hussein Mansi (left) signs a dummy cheque of Kshs 13.5 Million as sponsorship for this year's Bamburi Super Series Rugby to Kenya Rugby Union represented by chairman Mwangi Muthee,Sasha Mutai and Godfrey Karuga (2nd from left), He is supported by Susan Maingi (right) the firm's Corporate Affairs and Communication Director.Photo/CHRIS OMOLLO
What you need to know:
- Last year’s runners-up, Rwenzori will battle for a semi-final spot with Kenya’s Ndovu, Kengewa and Mamba.
Bamburi Rugby Super Series Wednesday received a boost of Sh13.5 million courtesy of title sponsor, Bamburi Cement.
The eight-team tournament will kick off on May 4, 2013. Kenya will provide six teams and Uganda two.
Receiving the cheque from Bamburi Cement Managing Director, Hussein Mansi, the Kenya Rugby Union chair, Mwangi Muthee, said the main goal of this year’s tournament is to create a strong national 15s side for the 2015 Rugby World Cup qualifiers.
“The tournament will be the best ground to build the team that will fight for a spot at the World Cup. The coaches have been selected and each one of them has been assigned a franchise,”
The final will he held on June 1 at the Moi International Sport Centre, Kasarani.
This year’s tournament has seen the reconstituting and renaming of the franchises, with all six Kenyan sides adopting Swahili names as follows: Nyumbu (Impala, Quins, Nondies), Papa (Mwamba, KCB, Homeboyz), Ndovu (Nakuru, Egerton, Moi, Kitale, Eldoret), Kengewa (Universities), Kiboko (Kisumu, Kakamega), Mamba (Coast). The Ugandan franchises are Rwenzori and Victoria. Women’s teams will play curtain-raising matches.
Last year’s runners-up, Rwenzori will battle for a semi-final spot with Kenya’s Ndovu, Kengewa and Mamba.
The first match will be staged in Kampala on the first day of the tournament.
“The Rugby Super Series is an important tournament as it is the platform used to select the national team and we therefore look forward to the highest standards of the tournament management by KRU as evident during the previous Bamburi Super Series,” Bamburi Cement Managing Director, Hussein Mansi, said.
In South Africa, 43 Springbok captains, past and present, met yesterday in a historic gathering that brought together legends of the game across race and gender.
From 1995 World Cup skipper Francois Pienaar to current women’s captain Mandisa Williams, the players marked the countdown to the launch of a new Springbok museum in September.
The museum will trace the game from the 1860s in the rugby-obsessed nation where the sport was separated during apartheid along race lines and only united in 1992. “I think it’s a wonderful start to tell the SA rugby story,” said Pienaar.
(additional reporting by AFP)
