With the conclusion of the 10-Aside season at the Great Rift 10 Aside women’s tournament at the Nakuru Athletics Club in Nakuru on Friday 19th April, where Standard Chattered Impala Ladies were crowned Champions, focus now shifts to the 2019 Fifteen Aside franchise.
Popularly known as the Aberdeen Shikhoyi Cup in memory of the legendary Kenya Lioness Captain Aberdeen Shikhoyi. This year’s Franchise will be composed of three teams made up of the 9 core teams that took part in the KRU Women’s 10 Aside Festival plus another 6 teams that took part in the Kenya University Sports Association Women Exhibition 7s games.
The first team “Tembo” will be composed of the 2019 Women 10 Aside Champions Top Fry Nakuru, Shamas Rugby Foundation, Kisumu Dolphins, Egerton university, MMUST & Maseno university. The Great Rift 10 Aside Champions, Standard Chartered Impala Ladies, Menengai Cream Homeboyz and Comras make up the second team “Chui” while the third Team, “Black Lions” will be a combination of Stanbic Mwamba Ladies, Northern Suburbs and the Kenyatta University Bladbabes.
”The Aberdeen Shikhoyi 15 Aside Franchise will run for three Sundays with a week’s break in between before we get the Lioness Select and Probables. The selected players will then be cut down further to form the Kenya Lioness team that will play Uganda Lady Cranes, if all goes according to the Women Elgon Cup plan.” said the Director in charge of Women rugby Moses Ndale. ”This is part of our plan as we look at the bigger picture which is the 15 Aside Women’s Rugby World Cup Qualifiers, that will be held in August this year.” he concluded.
The first leg of the Franchise will take place on Sunday 28th April. Venue and order of play will be shared in subsequent communication.
