Kenya national rugby union team
 |
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| Nickname(s) | Simbas |
|---|---|
| Emblem | African lion |
| Union | Kenya Rugby Union |
| Head coach | Jerome Paarwater |
| Captain | Brian Nyikuli |
| Most caps | Joel Nganga (52) |
| Top try scorer | Innocent Simiyu (12) |
| Home stadium | RFUEA Ground |
| World Rugby ranking | |
| Current | 22 (as of 29 August 2016) |
| Highest | 22 (2016) |
| Lowest | 51 (2003, 2004) |
| First international | |
|
Kenya Kenya won Tanganyika (1954) |
|
| Biggest win | |
|
Kenya 96–3 Nigeria (10 August 1987) |
|
| Biggest defeat | |
|
Namibia 84–12 Kenya (27 May 2006) |
|
| World Cup | |
| Appearances | 0 |
| Website | www.kru.co.ke |
The Kenya national rugby union team represents Kenya in rugby union. The team is also known as the , which is the Swahili word for lion.
Kenya competes in the Africa Cup and is ranked twenty-second in the World Rugby Rankings as of August 2016. Kenya has never qualified for the Rugby World Cup.
Their home ground is the RFUEA Ground which opened to an East Africa side against the British and Irish Lions in 1955. The national team is managed by the Kenya Rugby Union.
Rugby Union was introduced to Kenya at the beginning of the 20th century by British settlers and the first recorded match was in 1909. The game was initially restricted to whites only.
In 1923, the primary club in Kenya, Nairobi District, was split into Nondescripts RFC and Harlequins, due to the club's overwhelming strength. In the 1950s the first internationals began taking place. Early competitions included the Nairobi District Championships first held in 1925, a Royal Armed Forces tournament first held in 1937 and the Enterprise Cup which has been in existence since 1930.
Kenya played host to touring sides between the 1920s and the 1950s; notably including University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University and a Combined Universities (Oxford and Cambridge) team at Mitchell Park Stadium in 1951.
By 1953, the Rugby Football Union of East Africa was formed to oversee rugby in the three East African colonies of Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika. A Kenya Colony team played a Tanganyika team for the first time in 1954 and a Uganda Protectorate team in 1958 with the Kenyan representative side winning 21-11. Often, the Kenyan side was combined with other East African nations, and composed of players of European ethnicity. While the results were often lopsided, these games provided a huge amount of revenue for rugby in Kenya, and were incredibly beneficial. Kenya, as an independent side, played its first game against Tanganyika, proving to be victorious.
Post-independence, the desegregation of the Kenyan school system meant that indigenous black Africans' featured in the rugby sides of elite schools such as Duke of York and Prince of Wales. Players such as Chris Onsotti, John Gichinga, Dennis Awori, George Kariuki and Jim Owino would form the first generation of indigenous black African rugby players.
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Wikipedia