The story of 1982 rugby starts in 1981. I was in fourth form and Lenana was having a disastrous rugby season. We even lost to Saints at home, tena on Sterlings (extremely painful).
Alan Bukusi was a great captain but everything just went terribly wrong for his side. The maroon kit by that time was in tatters and seemed to portray the state of our rugby game then. I remember Dave Anderson (the then brand new rugby master) brought in a new school rugby kit but when it arrived everybody was disappointed. It was in Mumia house colors and he was told in no uncertain terms that Lenana rugby kit can ONLY be one color, Maroon. And so the first XV continued to wear their tattered kit and the new kit was passed on to a side that Anderson was busy building on the side for 82. It was christened “Moss Moss” (which I am told is Dholuo for slow slow) and was by invitation only. It consisted of fourth and fifth formers and was really the ’82 side in waiting.
Anderson organized several matches but the most memorable has to be the one we played at Parklands against a very strong Nondies II side. I knew the Nondies players very well at the time because during my 1st term school holidays that very year my parents had moved to the Parklands area and had I decided to train with Nondies during the April holidays even playing in a few games for them. The only problem is that I came face to face with raw racism in one or two of the Nondies players which was difficult to stomach but that is probably a story for another day. My point is that I can authoritatively state here that there were a few regular Nondies first team players on that side we beat.
I have played in many sides and looking back now I believe that it was that game at Parklands in 1981 where the ’82 side “clicked”. At one point of the game, Nondies using their superior pack play were ahead with the difference being a two figure score. But our scrum came back fighting ferociously as the lions tired. Notables here were Spike Ogot, George Mwangi, George Maiko, Dablo etc.
We simply started winning more quality balls from the scrum and when our backs got running Nondies with their superior weight and experience had no answer. The spirit and feeling of invincibility took hold of the team then.
Meanwhile some of us continued playing for the disastrous 1981 side. I got a chance to play in several different positions including 2nd centre and even Wing back. But I rarely got a chance to play full back. That position was taken by one George Steak Ondiek. Ondiek was in fifth form and unknown to many of us was about to leave for the States. That year guys used to watch the 1st XV games because of him. Despite how badly we were doing he would catch the ball in his own 25 yard area and then proceed to dance and hand off opponents until the other 25 (no kidding). It was a joy to watch and we all learnt a lot from steak. It was a fascinating situation where Lenana seemed to thrive that year exclusively on creating opportunities for tries and points from balls unwittingly kicked into the hands of our full back.
Well, I never got a chance until Steak got injured and we were supposed to play RVA at home. I was a bundle of nerves. How do you step into Steak’s shoes, tena at home? I remember Tony Maleche who was at the time a regular on the blind wing for that side encouraging me in the chem. Labs as most of the rest of the class was asleep (the norm in the labs in those days). It was a mid-week game. He told me that I would be fine.
But the really big encouragement for me was after that game (which we lost to RVA) in the usual post-mortem sessions at the lecture hall that Anderson insisted on in 1981 where Steak said that I had done okay but advised me to make better use of the up and unders.
Something else happened during our trips to games. We bonded as a team. I must admit that up to that point I had little respect for what the scrum did in a game. But thanks to Maiko, Mwangi George and Ogot’s outspoken nature during discussions, I started understanding how a game of rugby is always won or lost in the pack, no matter how good your backs are. I think most of the other backs also started appreciating the pack so much so that we never wanted to waste a single quality ball won by the pack. At the time we of course did not know that we were members of a side that would be remembered many decades later, even overshadowing achievements of earlier Lenana sides.
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