Uganda Rugby brings Africa home for continental event

For now, Uganda is going to be the focus of Africa, when they host seven other nations in the Rugby Afrique 15s championship, beginning this Saturday, July 20 to Sunday, July 28.

The newly refurbished Nelson Mandela stadium in Namboole is where most action is going to be once Algeria, Senegal, Kenya, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso touch down this week.

Notably, this action is happening right on the back of Uganda Rugby 7s side’s title win in the Africa 7s Cup, that concluded on July 7 in Mauritius. Uganda’s 7s side has had a lot of success lately. Their recent title, is the fourth in the nation’s history, and no doubt their brothers in the 15s will be aiming to impress, too, in order to emerge from their shadow.

It is a long time since Uganda’s 15s side had any significant success. At the last Rugby Afrique tournament that was held in France back in 2022, they were humbled by Kenya at the quarter-finals. Before then, they had lost the 2019 Elgon Cup to the same opponent at the Kyadondo rugby grounds, despite winning the first leg in Kisumu.

As if that had not been enough, in July 2021, they lost to Algeria in a Rugby Afrique 1c group tournament at Kyadondo. It was an uncharacteristic defeat, considering that Uganda were more highly ranked than the North Africans. All this was indicative of how low Uganda had fallen. The team looked disoriented.

“That is why we are determined to do better than we did then,” Leonard Lubambula, the assistant coach of the Rugby Cranes, said.

One thing that sticks out like a sore thumb, is the failure to win the Elgon Cup even last year, despite winning the first leg against Kenya at the King’s park in Bweyogerere.

In many ways, that game was a huge wake-up call. The team captain, Ivan Magomu noted that they have been working vigorously on improving their execution on set-pieces. Line-outs and the kicks have played a big part in putting paid to Uganda’s possibility to success in recent times.

So many points have been lost because of failure to execute well in that regard, hence turning possible victories into defeats. And no one more than Magomu has been hitting himself about it. As a fly-half, not only is Magomu one of the finest facilitators. But he is also a good kicker, yet, when it has mattered most, like many of his teammates, he has also come short.

A lot of work has been put in by the Uganda Rugby Union to ensure that this team is well tuned for this battle. A few months ago, a host of the players on this team travelled to South Africa for some high-performance training, which also included four highly competitive games there. Uganda edged the Limpopo Blue Bulls 18-17, but lost to the Supa Barbar- ians 23-41, and 35-38 to the Loftus 200 side. In light of that, Lubambula said: “In South Africa, we played against quality sides, which boosted our confidence, to execute our game model.”

Starting off with Zimbabwe this weekend in the quarter-finals is going to be a big test for Uganda especially with how high the stakes are. The four teams that make it to the semi-finals will automatically qualify for the 2027 Rugby World Cup qualifiers. Essentially, the bare minimum for Uganda is to reach the last four.

Yet, according to Lubambula, their target is to reach the finals, and win the cup, because it will be a pointer to how far they have come. But in their line, is Namibia, who have been to the last two World Cups. Their experience is invaluable. Conquering them will be hard.

In terms of global rankings, Namibia are number 23 while Zimbabwe are number 30. Uganda lie at number 36. Uganda’s 15s have added a few players from the 7s side such as Phillip Wokorach, Timothy Kisiga and Alex Aturinda. Perhaps with their recent success, they can inspire the rest. But no doubt, Magomu and company know a herculean task awaits them.