RUN PABLO RUN

My Rugby Story - An Open Letter To My Son David

Starting Out (Circa 1979 – 1986)

A precocious 6-year-old boy joins Hospital Hill Primary School (HHS) to pursue his elementary education.? His name is Paul Mumanyi Murunga. He is tall for his age and he stands upright like a soldier. Back straight, eyes straight ahead. Not afraid to look you in the eye.? Qualities most likely derived from his military upbringing.? His Father, at the time Captain in the Kenya Army was organized and forthright. He did not suffer fools but he had a pleasant gentle soul. Paul as we shall call him in this first part of the story, inherited his father’s gentle spirit and athletic build. His mother, the teacher and the disciplinarian in that home brought with her endless laughter and an open house. She was all about learning to do stuff for yourself and in general just getting shit done.? So, she taught her four sons how to fend for themselves very early on in life.? All her boys could cook, clean, and generally tend to their affairs.? These traits would become useful much later on in Paul’s pursuit of life. ??

Speed demon;

In Standard 3, Paul discovered that he could run fast. Very fast actually. The mobilizer in chief Waiyaki Buliro called for a race, to discover the fastest boy in Standard 3. We had already started testing our machismo strength in a bid to exert dominance. And so the race was arranged. On a bright and sunny Tuesday, the whole of Standard 3 trooped out to the field to watch this epic showdown. The girls were there screaming the boys’ names while the boys pretended to be completely unbothered by all the drama, they were deep in the zone. Just waiting to exhale when that gun went off.? The distance was about 200 meters From the classroom wall to the school fence and then back again.

The air was heavy with excitement, there was jostling and shoving as students hassled each other for the best vantage points.? A newcomer to Standard 3, one Elvis Othoo was the cause of all this Bruhaha.? He had arrived as a new boy changing schools from some desolate place but the boy was an athletic specimen and he could run.? Elvis in his first week had said a few things to the student powers, that were not so well received.? It became immediately apparent that this had to be settled the old-fashioned way. A duel of sorts had to be called. And this race happened to be it.? “Khaaaaaaiiii… boys will be boys.” To cut a long story short, I won the race that day even though some of the participants resorted to underhand tactics.?

Further to that, I would never again lose a sprint race in Hospital Hill Primary graduating as 100 / 200 meter Champion while also helping my house scoop all the relay titles in the 4x100 meter sprint relays.? I carried that speed into high school in #Patch having been accepted there upon completing my elementary studies. When my KCPE results came out after Standard 8 Examinations, we were upcountry in #Ushagoo.? In those days, results were not digitally relayed like they are now.? One had to go to the school to collect them.? My mother being a teacher used to participate in the examination marking process. She is the one who got my results for me.? That day when she arrived back at home she was like a woman possessed, I have never seen her so happy apart from when her grandsons were born. My mother was so pleased that I had done well enough to get into an A-Grade National School. That is all she told anyone who would listen to her for a month of Sundays. Little did I know how much that school would change my life!

I Discover Rugby. (Circa 1987 in Nairobi School)

I sat there on a Tuesday afternoon after class contemplating my first rugby practice.? We, the Rabble (Form 1s) had been told that the first training session was the most dreadful.? All the seniors showed up to put the “Monos / Freshers” through their paces, and it all began with tackling practice.? The Fresh Meat (which was us) were asked to go to the halfway line where various tackle techniques were carefully presented to us.? Not so bad I thought to myself… but alas I had spoken too soon.? We were then told to line up on the halfway line each of us with a Senior Player opposite us.? The instructions were simple. Run through your man and score the try beyond the goal line.? Running was familiar so I was pleased with that. The through your man part was going to prove a little tricky but I figured I could navigate that part without much damage.? We lined up in a single file and the strange oval ball was tossed at the first runner, Eric Arita from Kisii.? This brother could scatter, he was the form 1 cross-country champion so we waited with bated breath to see him outmaneuver his man.? But the tackler, a relatively small fellow in form 2 seemed unperturbed by Eric Arita’s pace.? He just set his feet in a wide stance for stability and then suddenly launched himself like a torpedo into Arita’s midriff. The timing was perfect and all that forward momentum was brought to a screeching halt. The diminutive Form 2 bounced back to his feet like a gymnast while Arita was left sprawled in the grass contemplating the price of milk in Kisii.?

Ogada possessed excellent rugby technique, was as fit as a fiddle, and as hard as nails.? Don’t let size fool you he said as he walked by. The next 20 runners met the same fate to the happy delight of the Senior folk. This was a true baptism by fire.? Nobody had gotten past the tacklers… this was going to be a very loooong day!!!? I was up next… I was big for a first former so I noticed that they carefully selected my tackler.? It suddenly occurred to me that this was an exercise that we were all meant to fail.? My opposite man, I would later find out, was a fourth former who had made the School 1st Fifteen Team. The whistle sounded and I set off in pursuit of my goal. I had been observing this charade for a while and I was determined to make the contact hit on my terms, not his. I picked up speed, at 25 meters, I was hitting top speed and I could see him beginning to line me up. I pretended to be easy meat before suddenly switching feet and dropping my shoulder straight into his weaker left side. The contact knocked him straight off his feet and I galloped right over him, gangly legs and all heading straight to the try line where I promptly scored beneath the posts. There was pin-drop silence.? Then a deafening roar! We all knew that a shitstorm was brewing… (But we did not care) a Rabble was not allowed to embarrass a senior in that manner.? The senior to his credit, stood up and shook my hand then he went on to say, that’s how you play this game. With no fear. No quarter must be given.?

And that is how I have always played this game that I have come to love so very much.? My bunkmate, #JamesWanyutuKarugu would also lay his opponent low that day.? We were the only two rabbles to score tries in that exercise. In the reverse of that exercise, when we were now the tacklers… nobody was able to get past us as well.? That is the day I well and truly arrived at Nairobi School.? 1st Term had been a blur, we had all just been struggling to fit in.? But 2nd Term offered the excitement of watching the famous #PatchMachine Rugby Team and here I now was rubbing shoulders with its members.? Because of our tackling escapades that day, JWK and I were asked to attend First Team Training with the Seniors.? Something that was unheard of at the time.?

Thus, my hallowed rugby story began. It would lead me to many firsts both in Nairobi School and at representative level for my country.? I was selected to play in the Sevens and Fifteens Rugby 1st teams when I was only a 2nd Former.? I scored a try on my debut, the winning try in fact as Patch Machine beat Changez (Lenana School) our arch rivals by that solitary score.? I was a hero and life was never the same again for me in that school.? No more chores (house duties) for me even though I was a junior.? School Team Members never did chores. They were all exempt. In 3rd form, I was part of an all-conquering #PatchMachine side that won every major school trophy available apart from the most coveted Prescott Cup League Title which lost in a closely fought battle with RVA.? I broke my collarbone in Fourth Form on the first day of residential training when my friend and team-mate Edward Kinyany or Ogre as he was more fondly known, tip-tackled me. At the School Sanatorium they diagnosed the injury as a sprain and they simply just immobilized my arm with strapping and then issued me some strong painkillers. Being young is a good thing, broken bones heal quickly.? I would later find out that the bones had fused back together rather nicely when the break healed.? To this day I have a knot in my shoulder where that hairline fracture occurred.? I didn’t play much rugby that year due to one injury or another.?

Mean Machine and Campus Manenos (Circa 1992 – 1996)

In 1992 the graduating class of 90 joined Uni after a gap year that was spent primarily getting up to no good.? I had spent my gap year driving a 5-ton Mercedes Tipper truck and riding my bike to all corners of Nairobi to save on bus fare, so I was super fit.? A true lean, mean, running machine.? I had also taken time out to attend short-term Bible School at Word of Life Kabete.? That experience helped shape my spiritual journey and it forms the foundation of my core belief system today.? I am grounded because of that life journey.? When I made it to Campus, I opted to participate in Christian Ministry at Nairobi Chapel to the chagrin of my peers.? Emissaries would be sent to my room every day to try and convince me to change my mind but I stood my ground.?

The Captain of Mean Machine having had enough of my shenanigans, showed up himself.? Frank Aswani explained that I could do both.? I could participate, in Full-time ministry at Chapel and Play rugby on Saturday afternoons, and thus Pablo the Christian Rugby Player came into being.? #MeanMachine was a great proving ground for a young player.? We had so much fun playing together and we won so many accolades together, not because we were the most talented team but more because we had so much passion for the game. It carried us through games that we had no business winning at times.? The bonds formed through those four years of Campus rugby, traveling, and playing together have stayed with me for life.? I know the #MOB (Machine Old Boys) are just around the corner ready to answer my call at a moment’s notice.? It is a piece of social capital that money cannot buy.?

?Kenya Team Beckons: (Circa 1996 - 2006)?

I was a late bloomer, checking into the Kenya Team late because I had refused to play rugby for a while so the selectors didn’t know who I was. But once I earned my first cap at the inaugural #Safari7s in 1996, there was no looking back.? I scored tries from everywhere causing defenses all manner of problems.? They never knew how to contain me.? Playing on the opposite Wing was my old Mean Machine Wing partner, Thomas Aquinas Ngesa Opiyo (aka TANO).? We won SAFARI 7S in 1997 when everyone thought we had no business even being in the Tournament.? That Win put Kenya back on the Sevens map.? Invites started to flow and my career as an amateur professional began.? Scotland was epic, we were invited to two tournaments there in the border towns of Kelso and Selkirk.? We got to the Final in the Kelso Tournament and that just added to our mystic, losing to a very good Scottish National Side in that game. But we had served up our notice. #Kenya7s was not a side to take lightly as the top British Clubs would later find out when the RFU invited us to play at Twickenham, The Spiritual Home of Rugby, In the #Middlesex7s

I had by this time been elevated to Captain of the Kenya 7s Team. I was flabbergasted by the thought that I would be running on first with the ball in hand on this hallowed field of dreams in the land where the game was essentially invented.? We got to the Final there as well, only losing to an exceptional Fijian Team. I was top try scorer, pushed hard by Thomas Opiyo and Sidney Obonyo. What a great Tour that was.? A moment that will live long in my memory is a try scored by Sidney #BlackRose Obonyo.? In a Final where we were evenly matched, Fiji had the ball and as usual, the #FlyingFijians were putting on a show.? Running angles, taking contact hard, and offloading in the same breath.? This brand of rugby was devastating.? Who were we supposed to tackle? The man with the ball causing us all manner of pain or the support runners coming at us from all angles?? Sidney gambled, because, as Tolbert Onyango stepped up to make the hit, he took up station in the passing lane collecting the offloaded Fijian pass and making off with the ball like a bat out of hell.?

Sid made a beeline for the corner flag with the Fiji Team in hot pursuit. As he approached the try zone it looked like he would not make it because the gap was closing fast. We could not offer Obonyo any support as we were sprawled in heaps all over the field. He had to do this on his own. Just before they caught up to him Sidney stopped dead in his tracks and stepped aside, the Fijians flew past him, and he walked to the posts scoring at a canter. It was the last play of the game. Twickenham lapped it all up exploding in rapturous applause.? Kenyas7s had arrived! We even won 10,000 pounds for our troubles. Quite a hefty sum in those days… not that we saw a penny of it. (Hahahahaha)

On to Holland, we went, to play in the Amsterdam Sevens. This is probably the biggest rugby Sevens tournament in Europe.? Hundreds of teams participate and that year the top draw was the #AllBlacks Sevens Side. Kenya was also in great form carried over from London, and we destroyed all teams that ventured our way, setting up an epic showdown with #GordonTeitjens and his NZ Sevens side.? I keep thinking we should have met in the final but our seeding did not help our cause.? Final score after a rip-roaring encounter NZ 31 Kenya 14.? Teitjens came by and shook our hands, he knew he had gotten lucky there, courtesy of some dubious officiating.? We returned home to a hero’s welcome and began our earnest prep for the Commonwealth Games that had just introduced #Rugby7s as a medal sport.? Most of the Rugby Powerhouses are in the Kings service so we knew this was not going to be an easy assignment.?

The rugby stories I have to tell are endless, I could fill a book with my tales of sporting adventure but I will save that for my biography. Here, I will share some of my milestone moments;

Top Try Scorer at Safari Sevens in 1997, plus winning the tournament for Kenya.? My first Trophy.

The Tour to the home of Sevens was sponsored by a Scottish millionaire Mr. Bill Moffat. I fell in love with the Scots, such a great people. I hope to return in my latter years to sample the Scottish delights of good Whisky and Golf.?

Beating Uganda7s 70 to 0 in Kampala in a one-off invitational tournament held on the #ElgonCup Weekend.? We were playing some great rugby back then.

Making my International 15s Debut against Arabian Gulf in an RWC Qualifier in Nairobi.? I scored two tries that day and made another in a man-of-the-match performance that got me on the front page of the Sunday Nation.?

Losing 55 – 5 to Tunisia away, in a game we should have won but we did not do our homework on the opposition.

The Total 1998 Commonwealth Games Experience where I was Rugby Captain and Team Kenya Flag Bearer.

Qualifying Kenya for the RWC Sevens in Nairobi where I was again the top Try Scorer.

The RWC Sevens in 2001, Mar Del Plata, Argentina. That atmosphere was amazing. Beating France, A Tier 1 rugby Nation for the first time.

Madagascar in 2001 RWC Qualifiers, where we Lost an epic encounter to the #Makis in Antananarivo. The whole City it seemed, turned up to hound us to Hell.? I have never seen a crowd that hostile before.? We could not hear ourselves speak on the pitch.? I retired soon after to pursue a career in advertising.

I am now quietly retired and involved in trying to pass on this vast knowledge pool to the young stars of tomorrow.? I still own a pair of rugby boots but pushing on Fifty plus years I haven’t donned those in a while. I prefer more sedate sports like swimming, tennis, and golf (which I have just started playing) … And when my nephew convinces me, you might find me on turf playing 5-a-side soccer with his friends or shooting hoops with my son David who loves Basketball.?

This has been real but I gotta go.? To my son David, These words are for you. I know you never got to see me play so I hope some of these stories will paint you a picture of the kind of player I was.? I wish you every success as you begin your sporting journey.? Playing Basketball in the USA is not going to be easy.? But I know you have the right mindset to succeed.? Just Keep working at it, the rewards will come.? You have a choice like I did to pursue more than one sport. I urge you not to give up athletics… Run baby Run! You could just find yourself holding an Olympic medal. As parents, your mother and I will do everything we can to help you succeed however the hard yards will be yours to carry on your own. Remember that you are loved by us and your brother, always! ??

Take care, son. This is the #SidewalkProphet your father saying Adios and Godspeed!

This Story was written as part of my contribution to a book that I am involved in publishing that chronicles the history of rugby in East Africa. We hope to launch the Publication in December as part of our Christmas Festivities as we Celebrate 100 years of this beautiful game on the East African Shores. ?Keep an eye out for that, you will want a copy for yourself.

Have a blessed Day! Happy Monday and have a great week.