Mwamba, Wadi Degla give rugby players a reason to smile :

Mwamba Rugby Football Club has partnered with Wadi Degla Sports Club as a move to grow rugby among young players.

The partnership will see Mwamba and Wadi Degla develop an age-grade rugby academy.

Mwamba, famously known as Kulabu, was founded in 1977 with the aim of promoting rugby among Kenyans when the game was still dominated by foreigners in the country. The philosophy still reigns supreme with this new partnership.

The academy, to be known as the WD-Mwamba Rugby Academy, will be hosted at the Wadi Degla club’s ultra-modern sporting facility in Runda.

The rugby club will provide the technical nous to run the academy, drawing from the renown Mwamba Academy and the club’s vast experience in developing players from an early age.

The academy will develop players from as young as four years old, who will learn the sport using Tag Rugby techniques, all the way to 18 year olds who will be groomed to play at club level.

The academy is scheduled to open its doors next month and will initially recruit from Wadi Degla’s “Community of Champions” members.

Mwamba has grown the sport of rugby with players such as Pritt Nyandat, Tom Oketch, the late Absalom ‘Bimbo’ Mutere, among the founders of the club.

Other top names are Edward Rombo, Manuel Okoth, Mwangi Muthee, Humprey Kayange, Collins Injera, Lavin Asego, Daniel Taabu and Billy Odhiambo.

Mwamba is not new to age-grade rugby having had teams for the under 12s and under 16s popularly  known as “Pebbles” among their rank.

Wadi Degla Clubs began their operations in Egypt in 2003. Five more clubs opened within the following years, serving 148,000 families and more than 600,000 individual members in Egypt.

Wadi Degla Runda Club opened its gates in 2016.