Rugby: Black Pirates have league title defence on line 

The Stanbic Black Pirates rugby club have never defended a league title.

And after their 27-28 defeat to the Jinja Hippos at the Dam Waters last Saturday, May 11 in the first leg of the Nile Special rugby premiership semi-final, Pirates know that their infamous record of never defending the league is set to continue.

Pirates coach, Marvin Odongo and his charges do not want to be tagged as one-time wonders, after their 2017 league success was only followed by their most recent in 2023; six years down the road.

But Odongo is quick to admit that their second-half collapse in Jinja last weekend is unacceptable, if Pirates’ title defence credentials are to be boosted. Having led at the break 24-10, Pirates collapse in the second half had been inconceivable.

Odongo said: “We started the game with a certain hunger and precision that got us the early points. Yet, in the second half, we lost focus, and took our foot off the gas. Add a few poor decisions, and we surely let ourselves down.”

But that has been the story of Pirates this season. They have at times been pretty blistering, yet at other times, been bad and there for the taking. Inconsistency has been Pirates’ byword. For a team that only lost once in 18 league games last season, this season, they have lost four, three of which were in the regular season.

Put simply, the levels of Pirates’ performance have declined from last season. The argument affront is that they have been missing key players like Desire Ayera, William Nkore, Isaac Massa and Alex Aturinda, who were away with the national sevens team. Add the absence of Sydney Gongodyo and Conrad Wanyama, the effect is felt.

Yet, even last season, for quite a while, they were without their sevens players. Maybe, the hangover from last season’s success has been the problem. Well, with their title defence hanging in the balance, especially if the Hippos are to maintain the levels they showed in the second half of the first leg, clawing back from a 14-point deficit, to win eventually, Pirates could be in trouble.

Tim Grover, a rugby director at Hippos. noted that they will look to maintain the momentum they built in the second half, after they eliminated their ball-handling mistakes of the first half.

For Odongo, there is every belief that his charges just got complacent. But he expects a better-spirited display, possibly like the one they showed against Rhinos in the quarter-final second leg when they clawed back from a deficit of over 10 points.

However, going by how the meeting of these two sides panned out in the regular season, that Pirates won 19-14 at the King’s Park in Bweyogerere, where the second leg is to be held, a true classic is on the horizon. But more importantly, Pirates’ attempt to defend a title successfully could ebb away for a second time!