George Nyambua: Kabras Sugar’s towering captain raring to go in ninth consecutive Kenya Cup finale

When George ‘Jijo’ Nyambua joined Kabras Sugar RFC back in 2013, both himself and the club were small in terms of stature, literally.

At the time, Nyambua had just finished his secondary school education at Bungoma High School and wore a thin size to his frame.

An unknown Kabras, on the other hand, was in its formative year and set out sail in the Kenya Rugby Union Nationwide League where the ultimate hope was that they would clinch promotion to the top tier Kenya Cup at the end of their escapades.

Ten years down the line, the Nyambua-Kabras combo has achieved, probably even surpassed, what was first thought when the two embarked on their rugby journey.

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Promotion to the Kenya Cup

Kabras gained promotion to the Kenya Cup at the first time of asking after going the whole 2013/2014 Nationwide League season unbeaten where they were promoted as champions after seeing off Catholic Monks in the final.

On the other hand, Nyambua, who has since morphed into a beast of an athlete, saw his stature at the club rise from a trialist to the leader of the pack at the sugar millers.

And on Saturday 6 April, the second born in a family of four will be making his remarkable ninth consecutive appearance in the Kenya Cup final since joining Kabras when his side takes on KCB RFC at the Kakamega Showground to determine the 23/24 champions.

Since his debut in the topflight in the 14/15 campaign, no other player has managed the incredible consistency of reaching every Kenya Cup final in a journey that started without even much planning.

“I remember I joined a weekend before and the next weekend I started playing,” Nyambua reveals to SportPesa News ahead of his ninth Kenya Cup final.

“By then I was playing as a lock (4) and I joined the team after successful trials where I had been referred by current MMUST head coach John Asila who had scouted me during the school games while serving as the Kakamega RFC head coach,” Nyambua, who plays in the back row these days, discloses.

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First Kenya Cup final

That was just the start of what was to come for the then 20-year-old who would see Kabras rise from infancy to conquering every milestone they had set for themselves after joining the big Kenya Cup boys.

And their journey took off in immaculate fashion.

After blitzing their way in the Nationwide League, Kabras did not take long to make their mark in the topflight as they made the 14/15 final in their maiden Kenya Cup season.

This was just their first time playing at the top level but here they were already laying down a marker of what was to come, a significant achievement for the team that had only targeted a humble top-six finish in their debut.

“The game I remember from our first Kenya Cup season was the one we beat Nakuru in the semis at their home ground. We fought till the last whistle and won I think 15-13.

Then we met KCB in the final which was a big stage for us by then considering we had just come from the Nationwide to the Kenya Cup and to our first final.

The game was played at RFUEA Grounds and there was such a big turnout, but it was just a dream come true. From high school, to Nationwide, to Kenya Cup and then the final. Just getting even to the semis was already an achievement,” the Pand Pieri primary school alumni reminisced.

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Unfortunately, Kabras could not cap off the fairytale ride as KCB thumped them 27-3 in Nairobi.

But lessons from that loss soon propelled them to the zenith as they provided an immediate riposte in the next 15/16 season as they fought from their sixth-place finish in the regular season to clinch their maiden title, beating Impala 22-5 in the final.

“We finished the 2016 season in sixth place but we got to the finals and beat Impala at Impala Grounds. It was one of my greatest achievements because it led to my first-ever call-up to the national 15s side Kenya Simbas,” Nyambua remarked.

At that time, the record stood at played two finals, won one and lost one. Not bad for a budding youngster finding his foot in the game and growing in experience.

But for the next four Kenya Cup seasons (16-17, 17-18, 18-19, 20-21), Nyambua saw hell with his Kabras side. Despite managing to reach each and every championship decider, the team could not just find a winning formula to build onto their promising start.

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And their misery came at the hands of their greatest tormentor – KCB RFC.

The sugar millers lost all of the four finals they came up against the bankers with the 2021 championship decider particularly leaving a significant impact on Nyambua’s career as KCB rallied from 0-20 down to win 28-25 in sudden death extra time.

“That was my most painful and worst rugby game and I still have nightmares till today,” Nyambua recalled on the match that saw his side bottle the massive lead at Nandi Bears.

“Most of the time I was getting to the final but I kept getting knocked out by the same team and it happened again,” he added, painfully.

“After Nandi Bears, we sat down as players without even involving the management and just decided to put everything on the line regardless of the team we would face in the next Kenya Cup final.

All the players were living in pain because we used to work hard every season then when we got to the final, we would get knocked out by the same team season in season out. We vowed to work on that ourselves and be it KCB, Oilers, Impala or whoever we would face next, we promised to turn around that form.

It happened that we started losing by a small margin, especially against KCB in the final. In the beginning, we used to lose 38-7 but now the margin reduced to like 28-25 and that sort of gave us some belief,” Nyambua regaled.

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Since 2013, the 30-year-old then ticked another box in his list of targets when he finally managed to beat KCB for the first time in his career in 2019, although in a league match.

“The first time I beat KCB since joining Kabras was in 2019 and we won 19-6 at the Den. That had been the only team that I had not managed to beat but I finally did it which felt like another achievement unlocked.

They had a full house plus home advantage and we managed to beat them so that felt really good,” he stated.

But belief fully got to Kabras in 2023 when they beat KCB again 23-29 at the Den in the 22/23 season and they have never looked back since then, winning the next two matches against the Bankers including that season’s Kenya Cup final that they won 19-9 to grab back-to-back titles having beaten Oilers 34-28 in 2022 to end their trophy drought since 2016.

With Kabras now trying to defend the title they won at the very same place, Nyambua exuded confidence in his side who will be eyeing a three-peat for the first time in their history.

“I believe this is the right time for Kabras to win. We are still playing with a majority of players who were there when we used to lose against KCB (Ntabeni Dukisa, Brian Tanga, Brian Juma etc).

That continuity, bonding and the belief we have in ourselves and the structures we have right now is helping and it is only the attitude to beat KCB that we did not have then.

I believe that I will win my fourth Kenya Cup title on Saturday and that will be a three-peat. I will be proud of myself and the boys winning the title unbeaten in back-to-back seasons. I don’t know if any team has been able to do that.

When you look at the number of hours we are keying in during training you cannot believe it. The good thing is that now the results are showing.

We want to go into the game with the right attitude and mentality and knowing where to play on the pitch. It is going to be a big game and a big stage to some but the guys who will take the field on Saturday are mature players who have handled the pressure and know how to play a knockout game,” Nyambua concluded.

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