Menengai Oilers’ danger man Denis Abukuse engages in yet another devastating run, this time against Nakuru, during their Prinlsoo Sevens quarter-final match at Nakuru Athletics Club on September 15, 2024. Oilers won 24-17.
Kenya Harlequin were crowned the 2024 SportPesa National Sevens Circuit champions last Sunday following a weekend of high drama at Nakuru Athletics Club.
It came down to a three-horse race, separated by 11 points, going into the sixth and final leg of the series in Nakuru where leaders Quins needed to at least reach the Prinsloo Sevens semi-final to be guaranteed of the national title.
Second placed Kabras Sugar, and third placed KCB needed to go all the way and lift the title while hoping Quins faltered.
All three fumbled at Prinsloo Sevens but it all played out well for Quins who reached the Cup quarters to secure the national diadem on 110 points while Kabras ended with 105 points after their Nakuru run shuddered to a stop in the semi-finals as KCB failed to make the Cup quarters to finish with 94 points.
Nation Sport reveals the key players behind the play, the teams and the results, in numbers as supplied by Tisini, a tech and data firm whose mission is to improve African lives using numbers.
Menengai Oilers star player and Kenya Sevens international Denis Abukuse was easily the best player of the series.
The 25-year-old may have been a fringe player for Shujaa in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games but he showed he was the hottest live-wire in the national circuit this year.
Abukuse was the series top try scorer with 32. The Oilers man, standing at 1.89 metres, also led in most line-breaks with 37. It is remarkable that he topped this key statistic but only played four of the six legs.
Of these, he was named the Impact Player of the Tournament thrice, at Dala Sevens, Kabeberi Sevens, and Prinsloo Sevens.
The remarkable Abukuse, an old boy of Bungoma High School, is only one of two players that scored 10 or more tries in a single leg.
He scored 10 tries at Prinsloo and 10 at Dala. His fellow Kenya Shujaa player Nygel Amaitsa scored 10 at Kabeberi for Strathmore Leos.
Kenya Harlequin’s go to man Amon Wamalwa, who played in all the six legs, scored the most points of the series, 227, including 27 tries.
Dennis Mulinge of the Catholic Monks put in the most tackles in the series at an impressive 73. However, the most tackles made in a leg was 21 recorded in three separate tournaments by three different players -- Wangila Richel of Kenya Harlequin at Driftwoods, Catholic Monks’ Hassan Wambani at Ingo and Samwel Asati of KCB at Dala.
Wambani had the best ball carry figures of 76, followed by his teammate Dennis Mulinge who had 71.
KCB, winners of Kabeberi Sevens, registered the most carries of 545 while TUM and Western Bulls had the least at 50 each.
Driftwood Sevens picked the unattractive tab of tournament with least tries scores at 199 with Ingo seeing the best of attacking rugby with a series high 243 tries scored.
Incidentally, the most tackles were made at the Driftwoods 7s tournament with 1,288 recorded. Most handling errors were also recorded at Driftwoods, 376 and the least at Christie (245).
Christie Sevens recorded the highest number of fouls committed at 270 and highest turnovers at 154.
With everything to play for in the final leg, it is not surprising that Prinsloo saw the highest sin bins, at 35, and most send offs, two. In total, 164 yellow and four red cards were issued in the 2024 circuit.
Data provided by tisini.co.ke
