Buyachi raring to go as he takes charge of Cheetahs

Cheetah’s head coach Lawi Buyachi has hit the ground running in his pursuit for Rugby Super Series glory after being appointed by the Kenya Rugby Union to lead the Nakuru based franchise of the newly re-launched series.

The former Kisumu RFC head coach says they have already started the process of selecting the players who will turn out for the outfit that will comprise of players from Menengai Oilers, Nakuru RFC, Homeboyz, Impala, Kabarak University, and the University of Eldoret.

“At the moment we are at the foundation phase by getting the players together, coming from different clubs of course they have different approaches to rugby competition so we are just trying to sell ideas to them on what we want to achieve just touching base at the moment and looking on how we can fasten the process.

“At the moment we have 38 players training, and we will see what we can do as we wait for the final number to be declared; hopefully by Saturday we will know the number we are allowed to field,” said Buyachi.

Buyachi who will be assisted by Simon Wariuki, says it will be easier for the players to bed in owing to the fact that they will be picking the top players from the select teams. He added that it was exciting to see young and upcoming coaches being given the nod to lead the franchise teams, with Oliver Mang’eni and Kabras’ Maxwell Adaka leading the Lions and Buffalos franchises respectively.

“Its humbling thing for me, I didn’t expect being an assistant coach at (Menengai) Oilers being trusted by this huge task. It’s a very good foundation just to mentor young coaches to step into the big shoes at an early stage. It gives us room to grow faster. All of us have played, the four coaches (Pau Murunga, Max Adaka, Oliver Mang’eni and Lawi Buyachi), all of us have played the series and won so again it’s something that we’ve been there but now as coaches I think it's quite exciting,” Buyachi reflected.

 Despite boosting of little top level experience, Buyachi says they are focused on going for the title

“Oilers have some very good players, so is Nakuru RFC and I think Impala has some quite good quality if we get the right mixture and the right balance we can go all the way and I think that’s our goal at the moment just to go all the way and challenge for the trophy and expose these players to the national team.”

 The Rugby Super Series makes a return after a ten-year hiatus and will be played over four Saturdays in May 2024 with matches in Nairobi, Nakuru, and Kakamega.

 The competition comprises four men's teams —Buffaloes, Cheetahs, Lions, and Rhinos—with two women’s teams.

In the men's division, teams will engage in a round-robin format across the first three match days, hosted at various venues. The top two teams from this phase will advance to the final at the RFUEA grounds here in Nairobi.