Machakos County popularly known as Masaku in Kamba was the place to be this weekend for the now popular Masaku Sevens rugby tournament. To say that half of Nairobi was in Masaku would be an understatement as the showbiz event held in Machakos Golf Club, was full to capacity.

Surprisingly, Nairobians carried the usual Nairobi traffic to Masaku and driving in and out of the venue, was quiet hectic and as this Forum correspondent would find out, all hotels in Machakos town were fully booked for accommodation by last month.

Nairobians set off to Masaku from as early as 11am and Mombasa road highway traditionally characterized by numerous trailers that ply the route to and from the port in Mombasa, was decorated with revelers in all sorts of cars and modes of dressing going to make it happen in Masaku.

THE SPECTACULAR MINI LOVERS

The showstoppers would eventually be the MINI LOVERS, a group of mini car fanatics who had come in as the Brand Ambassadors of Masaku 7ns.

With stickers of Masaku Sevens branded on the mini cars that came in basically all the Colours of the rainbow, (it was all happening in Masaku remember, the home of bright colours) the Mini Lovers Entourage was quite a spectacular on the highway from the time the group congregated at the Total petrol station just before the Standard Group Headquarters, all the way to Masaku golf club and not even the traffic police could contain their awe.

KENYA HARLEQUINS DEFEND THEIR TITLE

In the rugby grounds 16 teams including the host team Kilunda, Kenya Harlequins,Pirates and Rhinos RFCs  among others were battling it out for the MASAKU 7NS CHAMPIONS TITLE  in the two days event and the young defending champions Quinns would once again defend their title and take the trophy home through an emphatic victory of 22-5 over Homeboyz.

According to the quinns Head Coach, Charles Cardovillis the dedication and hard work from the boys brought home the victory.

“But besides the effort put in, I think what helped us retain our championship was the fighting spirit and dedication of the boys. We have a young squad and they followed instructions as directed.” He said.

Nakuru RFC won the plate title while Stormers clinched the bowl title.

Quite ironic is that 90% of the crowd in attendance was not interested in the games that were taking place on the field, which was the core agenda for the day, but were on the other end busy mingling, eating and drinking such that by the time the scorching sun was going down, the venue had been literally transformed to a club scene with Homeboyz Djs  who had set base on the Tusker stage set up by EABL, seeing to it that revelers were entertained with non stop music and performances from artists such as Avril and Mejja among others all night long.

Masaku Sevens was launched last year to promote rugby in the region and the tournament has managed to draw in a great deal of publicity hence attracting sponsorship from big brands such as Tusker, Coca Cola, Airtel and the Standard Group.

PHOTO COURTESY OF EYE-CON PHOTOGRAPHY