This weekend, we’ll get to watch the last round of the regular season (game week 11) of the new Rugby Championship before we get into the playoffs. It has, without doubt, been the most competitive rugby season we have had in a while.
What are the perennial big clubs you know? Heathens? KOBs? Pirates? Uhhm, okay. Jinja Hippos has had a lot to say about that so much so that they are assured of at worst second place at the end of the regular season.
The Platinum Credit Heathens love to hunt and bulldoze everyone, but they will tell you that they would rather play on the tarmac at the Lugogo Bypass, rather than anywhere past the Nile Bridge.
They needed a last-minute try to win in Walukuba. You read that right. Heathens survived Walukuba. They needed the “Mungu Ni Wetu” chant to come in clutch to salvage a draw against the Hippos who would have won had Yasin Wasswa scored his retaken conversion.
The Stanbic Black Pirates are counting three losses in 10 games, in one of those games, they were held scoreless. The KCB KOBs are counting 3 losses, and a draw in 10 games. The team that held the Pirates scoreless was the same team that handed KOBs that stalemate, the Toyota Buffaloes.
We wouldn’t think we would say these statements in Ugandan rugby in the near future, at least not this year. You could argue a case for absent team members but every club has had to deal with absenteeism in one way or another.
The Rhinos started on a flyer, winning five in a row and have since done a 180-turn, going on a 5 game-losing bender. Things got tough when the favorable fixtures were out of the way. Be that as it may, no one thought they would be winning 50% of their games last year.
They have definitely improved. The five-game losing streak misrepresents where they are at right now. The Mongers and Hippos needed last-gasp survival to snatch those games from the Rhinos. They are edging closer.
The Barbarians don’t see themselves as new boys. They certainly don’t play like they are getting used to the status. The Walukuba Barbarians have come of age, and it shows impeccably. They are into the knockouts, a status the Impis, Rams and Warriors who have been in topflight rugby longer, cannot measure up to.
The Plascon Mongers have been smooth operators. I can see you’re trying to sing the song while imagining Formula 1 racer Carlos Sainz. Well, almost. The Mongers are tied on 7 wins with the Pirates, and that’s one more than the 2021 champions, the KOBs. Entebbe has been a madhouse and a battleground where many travelers have gone silent.
Outside of the Heathens, the Jinja Hippos have been that team. The reason we have no runaway leader is because the Hippos exist. While KOBs and Pirates were trading disappointments, the Hippos have been keeping tabs on the Heathens. The measure-up was made apparent when the two drew in Jinja earlier in the season.
Impis fans have called for the axing of Coach Ssebuliba Syrus this season, citing a lack of direction and progression. It doesn’t look for them against the other teams, coming from a season where they won five on the bounce, plus a famous away win in Jinja. They have the relegation deciders to save face and see if they can stay up, and burry the excuse of exits and absenteeism.
Life has not gone according to plan for the Eagles. After the Uganda Cup, one would think something was coming but maybe not just yet. The Warriors have been cold air all season but have been handed a lifeline with the play-in mimic of the relegation playoffs. Maybe we are too close to these clubs to actually help them get out these slumps.
To be honest, I did not think the Rams and Eagles would struggle this much. It is funny how wrong one can be. After the kinds of Uganda Cup runs the two teams had, I know I wasn’t alone in waiting for more from these two teams.
Bring on the playoffs.
Courtesy Photos
1 comment
well done boys though we would request spotting of young and good players in some teams to b promoted to better and bigger ones