NAIROBI, Kenya, March 17 – Kenya Harlequin head coach Paul ‘Pau’ Murunga believes his side will be a force to reckon with in future tournaments as they continue to come of age.
Murunga said they are a young team that possess bags of potential that only needs to be nurtured for them to show their true colours.
“I think in terms of depth and where we want to go, we still have a strong team…both in the Eric Shirley Shield (ESS) and Kenya Cup. Come next season we can only get better because now we have players that can play well. We still have young players that need nurturing and building up so they can play well and gain that experience to play in games such as knockouts,” Murunga said.
The eight-time Kenya Cup champions ended the 2023/24 season in fourth place with 33 points, earning them qualification to the playoffs where they fell 26-20 to Nondies on Saturday evening.
Assessing their season, Murunga gave his charges a positive grade by paying homage to their consistency.
“We had a fairly good season considering we were able to get into the playoffs. The season has been stable in terms of performance…since the first game to the last one of the season, we maintained third or fourth position,” the coach said.
Nonetheless, he bemoaned the lack of lady luck on their side, which saw them miss out on a golden opportunity to grace the Kenya Cup semis for the second season running.
“What bogged us today is we got a red card in the 25th minute then we got another yellow card in the second half. So, it reached a point where we were playing with 13 players and Nondies came back to the game and scored two tries though we were still ahead. In the last minute, our decision making let us down…there was a bit of panic among the players seeing as they are young,” Murunga observed.
Nondies will be facing defending champions Kabras Sugar in the semi-final as Quins retreat to strategise for the coming season.
