By: James Kavuma
This past weekend served up some very interesting rugby in the Nile Special Rugby Premier League.
This particular writer was in attendance at Kings Park Arena in Bweyogerere, the home of the Stanbic Black Pirates as they hosted the Kampala Old Boys (KOBs).
I want to feel sorry for all who missed this game, but that will not help them. For 80 minutes, this game kept us on our toes because of its seesaw nature.
The only game that would come close to this one in terms of entertainment and end-to-end action would be KOBs winning 30-29 against the stubborn Plascon Mongers back in 2019.
KOBs had all the territory and possession in the starting stanzas of the game but against the run of play, the Pirates put themselves 10-00 ahead.
From that point on, the game didn’t settle. It did not make sense. Except it did. The national 7s team has been summoned, and as a gift to the local league, the boys who were called up put on a show. It was their game to play.
From the onset Ian Munyani pushed the boys in blue toward the Pirates’ red zone until the latter realized they had an assassin in their ranks named Timothy Kisiga.
After the KOBs early pressure yielded disappointment in the stands, Pirates got the ball into Kisiga’s hands, who ran down the field, sold a dummy, and found fellow Rugby Cranes 7s member Alex Aturinda to go over the whitewash for the game’s first points.
When KOBs needed an answer, Adrian Kasito, who was Kisiga’s opposite number on the day, grabbed the ball from deep and run through a bevy of defenders to put them on the board.
Not before long, he was back to set up the new kid on the block, Karim Arinaitwe, for KOBs’ second try of the day.
The 7s boys’ tit-for-tat continued, this time tilting for the sea robbers as Alex Aturinda found gaps where there seemed to be none to go over for his and Pirates’ second try.
In the second stanza, Karim, like Alex, registered his second try and changed the lead to KOBs favour. Not wanting to be left out, ex-7s star Pius Ogena got his bite of the cake with a try, catching Pirates in a brief slumber.
The next serve was from substitute Desire Ayera who made an immediate impact by bullying over for a Pirates try to level matters again.
A few penalties were exchanged in there, until the last moments when the ball left evergreen Wakabi “Sailor” Lawrence’s hands to the bruising Jjuuko Jude’s, before finding support and final resting place in Ian Munyani, another national 7s lad, to put the last nail in the coffin of the Pirates.
Just from the Kings Park action, you can tell that the local scene is going to be more open and competitive after the ejection of national team performers.
You can be sure the table standings are still getting edits after every game week.
Courtesy Photos
