Replacing ESS with under-20 tournament makes little sense
Kolian Persian of KCB II charges towards Habil Malika of Kabras II during an Eric Shirley Shield match at KCB Sports Club, Ruaraka on February 18, 2023.
What you need to know:
- In 2025, 40 per cent of the squad, built from the regions’ best players were found overage at the national camp.
- Many have played in Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association competitions meant for under 19s.
The Eric Shirley Shield (ESS) is back in the news. In 2015, I ended up coaching the Impala Rugby Football Club. I had been helping the actual coach, the late Erick Situma, prepare the team pre-season. I was director of rugby while he was head coach.
Situma’s regional development officer role at Rugby Africa became permanent. On the urging of the older players, the chairman, Oduor Gangla, would ask me to “temporarily” hold forte “as we sort ourselves.”
One day in-season, Gangla brought news from “the Union”. The Kenya Cup Caucus is a lobby of the Kenya premier division sides. They had agreed that the ESS would henceforth be an under-20 competition. Bedlam!
There was uproar from the technical unit. Impala “Gazelles” were having a great time leading the Kenya Cup log. A huge part of the impetus came from the ESS “Boks”. They would go on to win that season’s Shield (and the next one too).
Ten years later, KRU has once again signalled intent to return the competition to its under 20 roots. Kenyan rugby historian, Paul Okong’o, reckons the 63-year-old trophy was, at inception, an under-20 contest supporting the Nairobi District Championship (NDC).
It predates Kenya Cup. It is currently a holding bay for Kenya Cup reserves, for blooding some high potential young players and an outlet for rehabilitating and otherwise returning players.
Endemic age-cheating
Let us delve into this attempted policy change.
What is good public policy? Cass Sunstein, currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University, writes a lot on good policy. Inter alia, good public policy needs to be goal-oriented, problem-solving and benefits outweigh costs. In this last bit, unanimity lacks. The problem-solving goal is clear: to improve the pathway to Kenya Under-20 national side, Chipu.
The players then would serve as a route to the Kenya Simbas, primarily. What of the costs? Benefits?
First, there may well be a misunderstanding of the term “pathway”. A “pathway” cannot be the “terminus”. Chipu is a terminus – an end goal, of feeding age grade policies and actions. If Chipu must be fed, we need to look at the throughput of the under-18 and 19 levels.
There has been intent at the Kenya Under-18 level. The current director of rugby, Paul Odera, has managed, for the second year, a regional pyramid of the top under-18 players.
Last year, resource constraints denied the eventual team actual competition.
There are two core challenges below the under-20 level.
First, the endemic age-cheating. In 2025, 40 per cent of the squad, built from the regions’ best players were found overage at the national camp.
More intense checks found them out. This is the battle that must gain priority. Many of the players leaving school are already over 20. Many have played in Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association competitions meant for under 19s.
Somehow, they slip the school system but get sieved out by the more rigorous immigration apparatus.
Therefore, to resolve the under-20 pipeline, the focus needs to turn lower down. The mechanism to keep them playing in the short post-school window requires rethink.
Stages of player development
ESS is unlikely to be that retention solution if the Sunsteinian cost of the decision is considered. For instance, in the current ESS champions, Menengai Oilers, there were only four under-20 players in the 2025 final. Many of the others are in different stages of player development.
The next KCSE lot will be out in December when the new season is underway. Many of the former schoolboys will be very talented. Nonetheless, most will need building up physically to take the rigours of the senior game.
Majority will not even be an option for the ESS. At the same time, there is no proposal on how to cater for the role that ESS currently plays. Thus, while filling one hole, we have created two!
More than 15 years ago, we had a very strong showing at the Junior World Rugby Trophy. We lost the under-20 bronze to Chile. They beat Kenya 19-17.
The Kenyans were the products of then voluntary Sunday under-20 circuit. It was just four weekends. The results are etched in history. We didn’t need to take out the ESS then to create space for under 20s. We don’t need to now.
Certainly, we can’t do more than a quota arrangement in the first year. This would cause chaos in the affected clubs’ planning! Clubs could be asked to have a minimum of three starting and three reserve under-20 players in the 2025/26 ESS. However, a full U-20 squad at ESS, in year one of this apparent directive, is simply untenable.
Ollows is a World Rugby Trainer and former head of development at KRU