Black Pirates’ Odongo driven by taunts

The 2023 Nile Special National 7s championship took a break this weekend. It will return on the weekend of July 22 to 23 with the Rujumba 7s at King’s Park in Bweyogerere, the home of the Stanbic Black Pirates rugby club.

There will probably be no better timing as far as the Pirates are concerned. Over the weekend, they beat the Jinja Hippos 24-0 to win the Kitgum 7s. This came on the back of their 19-7 win over Kobs in the Stone City 7s played out at Dam Waters, Jinja from July 1 to 2.

As it stands, Pirates have won the first two legs of the national 7s season, clearly putting them in pole position to win the championship with five more legs to play; Bweyogerere, Fort Portal, Tororo, Bugembe and Kyadondo in Lugogo.

However, Pirates coach Marvin Odongo is not thinking that far ahead as far as the crowning ceremony in September is concerned. Instead, he is preoccupied by the fact that they need to remain level-headed to improve their game.

Last year, Pirates marked 25 years of existence. And until May this year, when they won their second 15s league title, their only other silverware was the 15s league title and 7s championship, both picked up in 2018. And Odongo looks back on that period with some pain because of the taunts that Pirates had to live with every passing day.

“We have been called so many things by our rivals every time we did not win. From perennial chokers, pretenders, bridesmaids, to underachievers. Those are things that hurt me so much throughout my career. And when we first won in 2018, the relief was unbelievable,” Odongo said.

In fact, that success turned out to be a watershed moment for Odongo because he did not play on for long after that. An injury while playing for the national team that year ended his playing career prematurely. He stopped playing aged 26.

And for some reason, that coincided with another barren spell for Pirates, where their mockers dubbed them one-time wonders. So, winning a second 15s league title in May brought some relief.

Isaac Lutwama, who is the CEO of the Uganda Rugby Union, said: “Pirates are young, athletic, highly technical and motivated. They will
take some stopping.”

That, coming from a former Kobs executive is a big admission. It goes without saying, that the Pirates management has done an impressive job of patiently building this team, which is coming of age.

With the likes of Desire Ayera, Timothy Kisiga, Isaac Massanganzira, Mubarak Wandera, Alex Aturinda, and William Nkore, all national 7s team internationals, there is experience in the ranks. But even more importantly, character. In the first leg against Kobs in the final, Pirates fell behind 0-7, only to come blazing back, to win.

In the second leg, against Impis, at the quarter-final stage, Pirates trailed 0-12, and were on the brink of elimination. But they rallied in the second half to tie the game, pushed it into extra-time and won 17-12.

Clearly, Odongo, 32 now, will not need much convincing that his side are exorcising the demons that once held them back. Pirates look the part!