The leagues and fixtures committee of the Kenya Rugby Union are set to issue a ruling today on an appeal by Strathmore Leos over last weekend's walkover handed to Blak Blad.

Leos were first scheduled to face Blad on the 17th December last but asked for postponement of the fixture as they would be out of the country during that period to participate at the East African University Games that took place from December 17-22 in Uganda.

Leos head coach Louis Kisia confirms a communication was made between them and their rivals who indeed were also set to take part in the said tournament

"We realized that on the 17th Dec 2022 when the East African games were starting we were set to face KU at the Blad, so our Sports admin Nick Ongeri sent an email to the KU Sports director Dr Florence Gitau asking if we could reschedule the game because both KU and us were meant to be in Uganda. The Union was copied through the director of rugby who confirmed that was the agreement," Kisia said.

However Blak Blad opted out of travelling and decided to prepare for their match against Leos. Leos proceeded to Uganda and won the East African University school games.

The 28th of January 2023 was the official buffer zone for all the rescheduled matches in the Kenya cup and only two matches were slotted in for the weekend with Kabras hosting Homeboyz in Kakamega and Blad set to face Leos.

In what sounds like a small TV sitcom, the back and forth of confirming the fixture continued with Blad adamant that that won't play and we're ready to take the walkover. Not even a KRU communique to both teams to find a solution would unlock the stalemate, and the leagues and fixtures committee took the decision to award the points to Blad.

"The walkover came in when the leagues and fixtures committee said we needed to agree but when we reached out to KU, they said they weren't ready to play."

On the other hand, Blak Blad Chairman William Moto faulted Leos for failing to show up for the match on the scheduled date saying they believe they played by the book. "Definitely the jury will sit down and have a verdict but as a club we believe we did everything which was right according to regulations and tournament rules and we are expecting the best. Of course we were really ready to play them and we've always wanted to earn our points the same way we have earned across the matches we have played. So it's unfortunate it's reached this point where the game has to be decided inside a boardroom,” Moto said.

Kisia notes the award of walkover to Blad will greatly affect his team heading into the second leg of the season.

"This game is very important. It puts us both in a spot of the play off places but right now because they were given the walkover and we were deducted two points I'm almost third last to the relegation zone," remarked Kisia.

The leagues and fixtures committee is set to arrive at a decision today at 5pm in what will shape the season for both teams.