2010 Victoria Cup
| 2010 Victoria Cup | |||
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| Countries |
 Kenya Uganda Zimbabwe
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| Tournament format(s) | Round-robin | ||
| Champions |
Kenya (1st title) |
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| Matches played | 5 | ||
| Tries scored | 26 (5.2 per match) | ||
| Top point scorer(s) | Simiyu I. (30) Kenya
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| Top try scorer(s) | Simiyu I. (6) Kenya
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The 2010 Victoria Cup took place during June and July 2010, and was the inaugural Victoria Cup with the national teams from Zimbabwe, Kenya and Uganda competing in a round robin tournament, with both home and away fixtures. Kenya was declared the winner after winning all 4 of its matches.
Click on the date in the first column to see more details on that match.
The Kenya head coach Michael "Tank" Otieno is an ex-Kenyan international who had played against Zimbabwe four times in his career and lost each time (1981, 1985, 1987 and 1989). The captain, Innocent Simiyu, had previously played Zimbabwe twice and won each time (2002 and 2003). Though the last match between the two sides was won by Zimbabwe these results describe the changing relative strengths of the two sides over the past 30 years, Kenya are stronger than they were though in truth the greater part of this change is a lowering of the standard of the game in Zimbabwe.
The Kenya squad included two new caps in the youngsters from the Kenya Harlequins club, David Ambunya and Patrice "Situational" Agunda. This was the first Kenyan international match that involved a decision from a Television Match Official (TMO); early in the second half, Zimbabwe crossed the Kenyan line but the referee was unsighted and sent the decision upstairs. The TMO ruled that the Zimbabwean ball carrier had been held up so the try was not awarded. The sables were leading 3-7 at half time. This defeat ended a four-match winning run for Zimbabwe, though it was their third successive away defeat by Kenya.
Sables' coach Brandon Dawson expressed displeasure at the referees' handled of both this and the Kenya game the previous week, stating that the quality of officiating is negatively impacting the development of the game in Africa. The match generated further press coverage when the Sables’ team manager Noddy Kanyangarara was accused of slapping the Ugandan liaison officer Chris Lubanga during an incident in which the Zimbabweans had complained about being booked into sub-standard accommodation. Lubanga is reported to have opened a case of assault at the Kira road police station.
However Dawson conceded that Zimbabwe can only focus on their own game and simply need to put thse events and the two defeats behind them and move on. Kanyangarara said that the Zimbabwe team had wasted the few chances they had in the game, whereas Uganda had made the most of theirs.
Prior to this match, Kenya were 41st on the IRB World rankings and 5th in Africa with 50.10 points, just a position and 0.01 points ahead of Uganda. The Kenyan victory earned them 0.30 points and a climb of 3 places to 38th, one shy of their best ever position since the World Rankings were introduced in October 2003. Uganda dropped to 43rd with 48.79 IRB points.
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