Menengai Oilers booked a return to the Impala Floodlit final after a commanding 42-21 victory over Blak Blad in the first semi-final played at Impala Club.
The defending champions, who were seeking to make back-to-back final appearances, came into this clash with a superior record against Blad, having lost just once in their last six meetings.
Menengai Oilers dominance
Their dominance at this stage continued, having beaten Blad 22-6 in last year’s semi-final.
Blad, who were hoping to cause an upset, endured a tough opening 22 minutes, conceding 24 points in quick succession.
Oilers opened the scoring through Timothy Okwemba, who fielded a clearance kick and sliced through the defence for the first try. Enock Oduor responded for Blad with a penalty to make it 5-3.
Moments later, Oilers extended their lead from a well-executed maul off a line-out, with Samuel Were grounding the ball for a 10-3 advantage.
Oduor kept Blad within reach with another penalty, but Oilers struck again when Victor Were dived over following a quick tap off a penalty, and the conversion stretched the lead to 17-6.
Their forward dominance continued as Elkens Musonye powered over at the back of a scrum, and the conversion made it 24-6.
Oduor added another penalty for Blad to bring the scores to 24-9 before missing a chance to narrow the gap further on the stroke of halftime.
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After the break, Oilers resumed strongly, scoring early to move 29-9 ahead. Blad hit back with a well-constructed try to make it 29-14, but the Oilers kept control of proceedings, adding a penalty and another try from close range to push the tally to 37 points.
Blak Blad scored a late converted try to reach 21 points, but it was not enough to prevent Menengai Oilers from marching into their second consecutive Impala Floodlit final.
