Daystar Falcons Rugby players (from left) Deogratious Imo, Adrian Wamatsi, Meshack Ochieng, Theophilus Talam and Geylord Ngasi pose for a picture at the university gym at Athi river campus on April 3, 2025. The team is preparing for their Championship final match against Mmust on April 12. F
After three decades of trying Daystar University Falcons Rugby finally secured a place in the top tier Kenya Cup league, but they are not celebrating just yet.
Falcons tore apart former Kenya Cup side Catholic University East Africa (CUEA) Monks 29-10 at their Athi River Campus in their Championship semi-final last Saturday to secure one of the two promotional places reserved for the finalists.
Formed in 1995, Falcons, are all set for their maiden Kenya Cup appearance but they want to end the season in style -- they want to win the Championship title first.
Victory could be that much sweeter as they are meeting Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (Mmust) in the final on April 12, a team that thumped them 5-0 in the regular season.
That match was actually stopped in the 60th minute because of a heavy downpour with Mmust leading by five points. The Kakamega-based varsity side were later declared the winners in line with KRU regulations.
Falcons got promoted from Nationwide into the KRU Championship in 2022.
The Athi River-based students made it to the Championship semi-finals in the past two seasons before Saturday but came up short on both occasions, losing to Kisumu 19-7 in 2023 and to South Coast Pirates 3015 in 2024.
Falcons now want to grab the championship crown on their third straight knock-out appearance before they can, as Kenyan are wont to say, rudishia mwili pole -- relaxing with a celebratory drink.
“It has taken us 30 years to reach the Kenya Cup league. It is by no means a mean achievement but we aren’t celebrating yet.
“We want to finish it off with victory against Mmust so that we can get off our spikes and put on our dancing shoes to celebrate,” said Falcons coach Caleb Bosire.
“Mmust beat us because of the rains and we want to put the record straight, God willing,” Bosire said with a hint on menace
Daystar University was founded in 1989 and Falcons Rugby Club formed six years later.
Falcons finish second in the Championship‘s regular season with 47 points, one point behind Mmust.
Ten wins and one loss illustrated the form of Daystar lads and secured them a the home semi-final against Monks.
Bosire, a former Falcon player currently pursuing World Rugby Level II certification, said that the four weeks break before the semi-finals gave them good time to rest and recover.
“We also had depth since we had retained most of our players from two previous seasons. The break gave us time to polish our all round play,” said Bosire, adding that their defence played a huge role during the season.
“We landed two tries in the first 20 minutes against Monks and that cushioned us through.”
The 35-year-old coach said that they are heavily indebted to the university management, who are their sole sponsors especially their Vice Chancellor Laban Ayiro, who is their patron.
“Most teams have struggled to honour their matches or lack basic things like the playing kit but all has been well for us,” said Bosire.
He reckoned that as they look forward to play in the top flight Kenya Cup it will be an entirely different ball game ball that calls for good signings if they are to measure up to the big boys.
“We will bring in some players with experience to boost the young team. We shall look at teams in the Championship as well as high school where we draw most of our players from,” said Bosire.
He said they needed to be ready for a turnover of players as their student members graduated and left the institution.
The talent within Falcons ranks has seen them contribute players to Kenya Sevens and Kenya Under-20.
The fast rising Kenya Sevens speedster Patrick Odongo, who was recruited from Agoro Sare Secondary School from Homa Bay County, skipper Augustine Owino, who is a Kenya Sevens player and Arnold Agonda, who featured at Safari Sevens are the recent stand-out players.
Four of Daystar members made Kenya Under-17’s Chipu that participated at the World Rugby Under-20 Trophy in July last year in Edinburgh, Scotland, namely, stand in captain Geylord Ngasi, Wycliffe Ogutu, Nathan Tsindoli, Eddy Wambugu and Mike Oduor.
Other key players who have been at Falcon over the past three seasons are flanker Deogratious Imo, locks Meshak Ochieng and Theophilus Talam, and winger Adrian Wamatsi.
Ngasi, wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of the injured Owino, said they evaluated the approach they took over the past two seasons before coming up with a team plan for this season.
So far, so good.
