Record champions, the Platinum Credit Heathens play the defending champions, Stanbic Black Pirates, in a winner-take-all finale of the Nile Special Rugby Championship this weekend.
Almost exactly four months after the 2024 Rugby Championship season kicked off with the Heathens beating the Pirates in Kyadondo, the two teams will deservedly meet in a grand final that, if the two semifinals are any guide, will be enormously difficult to predict.
The Heathens earned the right to host the final after losing only one match the entire way, a run stitched together with help from their consistently high-performing attacking talents along with a defense led by Joacquim Chisano and Charles Uhuru which has been ruthlessly drilled by coach Athiyo Muhammad.
However, they struggled in their most recent game to break the KOBs open and given the way the Pirates put down the foot to put daylight between themselves and the Hippos, they will have a mighty challenge against the defending champions on Saturday night.
But form and momentum or whatever you want to call it will count for naught on Saturday because, apart from anything else, grand finals attract a different type of intensity and pressure.
The Heathens were mini-championship winners after finishing the regular season on top. They would dispatch the Walukuba Barbarians 53-16 in the quarterfinals before splitting the games one-apiece with the KOBs in the semis. Nonetheless, they would advance to the finals on a 42-36 aggregate win.
The Pirates finished third in the regular season after a tumultuous sail by their standards and would set up a quarterfinal clash against the Rhinos. Two nervy home and away games both went their way (10-07 away and 30-27 at home) to advance to the semis on a 40-34 aggregate win. In the semifinals, they went from losing the away tie (28-27) to the Hippos to mastering a 27-23 home win and making the finals with a 54-51 aggregate win.
Flyhalf Ivan Magomu and the Stanbic Black Pirates will be excited by the fact that Heathens’ unbeaten bubble was burst by the KOBs, and at the venue they’ll be playing at this weekend, the Kyadondo Rugby Grounds.
Pirates have a score to settle with the Heathens having lost the season opener to the latter at Kyadondo, and then the match against Buffaloes as well; at the same ground.
The versatile Michael Wokorach and the Heathens have their work cut out for them to ensure that the loss to KOBs was just an error in programming and also look to avoid back-to-back defeats, and add a second trophy to their haul for the year, after the Uganda Cup triumph.
The finale is a game like no other. Coach Tolbert threw a live wire into the knockouts with the addition of National Sevens stars into championship contention. On more than one occasion, they’ve proven the winners for the two sides in the final. And Saturday presents another chance to see the country’s best in action.
Key Players in the Spotlight
Haruna Muhammad, Timothy Kisiga, Paul Bagota, Ivan Magomu, Desire Ayera and his big brother Ruhweza Alema have been the names on the lips of the Pirates faithful and they will ask more of them, for just one last game this season.
One his day, Haruna Muhammad can beat everyone on a rugby field alone. One his day, Kisiga can play with one hand tied behind his back and still be the best player on the field. The temporary reprieve provided by Isaac Massa as second five-eighth alongside skipper Magomu is the backline fluidity that the sea robbers will look to use to their advantage. Ever since Desire Ayera reprised his role in the back row, the Pirates pack has been doing a lot of gain line carrying and providing a platform for the backs to roam.
After a successful exploit at Legends, kicking became the undoing for the Heathens a week later at Kyadondo. The Heathens will need the ancestors at Kyadondo to align with Aaron Ofoywroth and Daniel Malcolm Okello regarding their kicking them if they are to compete with the Pirates.
The forwards have come under heavy scrutiny in their last three halves of rugby against the KOBs giving away multiple penalties both at set pieces and on the defensive backfoot. That is another niggle the yellow machine faithful will hope their charges get in order.
Courtesy Photos
