The Uganda Rugby Union is set to rebrand the Nile Special Premiership to the National Rugby Championship starting 2023-2024.
This rebrand comes after the expansion from 10 teams to 12 teams. The 10 teams from the 2022-2023 premiership will retain their status, and they will be joined by both the Warriors and the Kitante Eagles.
The Kitante Eagles were the playoff winners in June, with the win coming against the seasoned Warriors.
They will join Pirates, Heathens, KOBs, Hippos, Impis, Rhinos, Barbarians, Rams, Mongers and Buffaloes – the competition will rebrand and undergo an overhaul from its current format.
KOBs utility back Adrian Kasito
The Home and Away format, with the top team at the end being crowned champions, shall be abandoned in favour of a round-robin play format with playoffs at the tail-end.
The fixtures will be scheduled so that every team will play each other once, either home or away – and culminate in 11 game weeks. At the end of game week 11, playoffs shall commence with 3rd place playing 6th place and 4th place playing 5th place. These two games will be classified as Playoff 1 and Playoff 2, respectively.
The winner from Playoff 1 would play second on the log, while the winner from Playoff two would square off with the top team on the log.
These two games will be classified as Playoff 3 and Playoff 3, respectively. The winners from playoffs 3 and 4 would meet in the finale.
On the dreaded end of the log, the bottom four sides would play in relegation deciders.
The 9th place plays 12th, and the 10th place plays 11th. The losers of these games would be cut from the following season.
There would also be a classification game for 7th and 8th place in the mid-table.
Each of these 12 teams will be required to have a reserve side, and these 12 reserve sides will also play in the same format, save for the playoffs in the Reserve Rugby Championship.
These reserve games will serve as curtain-raisers for the National Rugby Championship.
