2017/8 Nile Rugby Premier 10 Preview for Week 15

Week 15 will hopefully provide more fireworks as teams jostle for any points to ensure they finish the competition very strongly. Pirates gleefully lead the pack as the Warriors are shockingly at the bottom of the log. All this can change very quickly and hence confirming that this year’s competition is the stiffest ever in our short rugby history.

Shell Rimula Rhinos host Toyota Buffaloes

On Friday the 3^rd placed Shell Rimula Rhinos will host 6^th placed Toyota Buffaloes at legends. The Rhinos will hopefully have recovered from last weekend’s celebrations after beating KOBS. The Buffaloes on the other hand came closest this season to beat Pirates on the pitch last weekend. The formidable Rhinos’ forwards will want to dominate possession while Buffaloes will want to give the backs lots of ball and space to operate.

Betway Kobs versus Plascon Mongers

This 2:30 kickoff at Legends will be a big test of nerves as both teams are eager to get maximum points. It could also turn out being the hardest game for the top sides in week 15. Mongers managed to put away a high flying Hippos in Jinja in style and will be hoping to continue from where they left off on the road.

KOBS vs. Mongers

The KOBS on the other hand are aware that they cannot afford more loses. They still have a mathematical chance to win the league. It will be interesting to see how they will try to balance the need to win and also plan for week 16 when they host their ‘old enemy’ Heathens. 

Pirates host Warriors

 The table leaders clash against the bottom placed warriors would normally not attract a lot of attention from most observers but not this time around. The Pirates last weekend looked very shaky against Buffaloes and were forced to dig much deeper in their arsenal to win the game. Things might not be so different this time around as the warriors are basically fighting for their survival in the Premier 10. The Pirates without 6 players who are in the Uganda Seven’s team looked so vulnerable last weekend and this could act as extra motivation for the Warriors.

Hima cement Heathens vs. Impis

 The Heathens seem to have an easier run in this fixture against the students and hopefully reserve some energy for their week 16 clash against KOBS. The hosts seem to have finally gotten their rhythm and this not very good news for the Impis who managed to shock the warriors last weekend at the ‘graveyard’. But playing the relegation threatened teams at this time can never be an easy thing to any team. While the Heathens are fully aware that they cannot win the Premier 10 this time around they will want a more respectable finish than the current 4^th position. This fixture should keep both sets of fans on their toes for a while. 

Heathens

Rams vs. Hippos

This might turn out as the best clash of week 15 with both teams still firmly stuck in the relegation zone. Both teams on a good day are capable of upsetting each other. The rams will want to set the record straight against the rookies. The Hippos on the other hand seem to be enjoying mocking the other teams in the relegation slugfest with their brilliant backs play. With both teams expecting no favours from any team in this final bend, expect nothing apart from fireworks. Both teams will definitely treat this as a final.

                                

Adrian Kasito: Player of the Month February 2018

The Rugby256 team unanimously voted Betway KOBS’ Adrian Kasito as its player of the month and by all accounts he deserved it. The Betway KOBS’ fullback has done well in fitting in the shoes of Joseph Aredo who now plies his trade at Kenya Harlequins. Adrian has been exceptional for his club and quite effective at both his attack and defensive plays.

Adrian Kasito dawning the Black, Yellow and Red at African 7s Championships 2017

Even moments when his team were down you always expect something out of the blue from this 22 year old soft spoken genius. Before he joined the mighty KOBS he honed his rugby skills at St. Mary’s College Kisubi and he is currently pursuing a Bachelors of Statistics at Makerere University.

He joined KOBS because he had many players to look up to there like Brian Odongo and Justin Kimono and he first enrolled for their development side Boks. In KOBS he has found a solid family with a very rich rugby history. He looks at his dad as a source of his unwavering inspiration. His stand out game in February according to him was against the warriors where he made few errors and got heavily involved in most of the team’s scores.

KOBS vs. Warriors

This ultimate team member is always talking about his team and not himself and he is grateful to having good mentors at his club and the Uganda Sevens’ team. He first came to the limelight in the National Colours in the 2016 Africa Sevens’ championship in Nairobi with some stunning performances which made any doubting Thomas’s to fervently seek repentance.

KOBS vs. Rams

Just to prove he is a gem in the team he had the last say during the 2017 Africa Seven’s Championship in Kampala with the dying moments of the game against Zimbabwe in the final. Uganda was on the ropes and after some excellent team work he found himself in a fair gap and run on behalf of all Ugandans to score the winning try. He made Zimbabweans and Ugandans cry. Tears of disbelief and of joy.

His veteran team mate Victor Wadia noted that Adrian has ‘high command at the back, creates and scores the most important tries and he has good game reading abilities. He makes try saving tackles and has a crazy work rate’. Betway KOBS’ head coach Rony Lutakome adds; “His commitment levels are up there top shelf. He works out with Justin Kimono. He tackles like he has life insurance and very explosive on attack”. Rony rarely praises any player and he has no time for ‘weak’ chaps. Adrian is definitely not a ‘weak’ chap.

Adrian is in the lager squad for the Uganda Sevens’ team and he is humble enough to know that he has to work harder and smarter to make the team to the 2018 Hong Kong’s Seven’s qualifiers. He points out Uganda’s failure to make it as ‘core’ team in the HSBC World Series in 2017 as his lowest point. He clearly hates losing.

Adrian points out that his highest point has been getting the opportunity to play for the Uganda Sevens’ team and therefore representing millions of Ugandans. And that is also a big motivation.

Rugby256 wishes Adrian and Uganda Sevens’ all the best in their preparations to make it to the Hong Kong Sevens’ Commonwealth Games and the Sevens World Cup.

Congratulations Adrian.

The 2017/8 Nile Premiership: Week 14 Round Up.

Week 14 came and went and the punters’ advice was thrown to the wind in some of the fixtures. There was no change at the top 7 in the table standing but certainly something seismic happened at the bottom 3 with Impis shocking the warriors at the “Graveyard”.

The log leaders Pirates survived a Buffalo attack at their home base in the earlier kickoff at Legends and it was very obvious that they struggled largely due to a bigger number of players missing in their squad as compared to the Buffaloes due to the upped preps of the Uganda sevens’ team-who were camped in Jinja. Buffaloes went into halftime leading the ‘sea robbers’ and it took lots of a gut wrenching fight back to see Pirates emerge 15-11 winners. 

The victory ensured Pirates goes into week 15and 16 still as log leaders and Buffaloes earned their 2^nd consecutive losing bonus point. It was great defensive work from the Buffaloes which kept them in the game since they absorbed a lot of Pirates attacks later in the second half.

The second match at Legends was the game of the day and it was certainly difficult to point out who the winner will be in this Legends derby. Midweek, the Shell Rimula Rhinos had parted ways with Head coach Brian Makalama and KOBS have been looking sharper than most of their first leg performances. The Rhinos forwards dominated at the set pieces for most of the game and despite some daring runs from Justin Kimono for the Betway KOBS on the wing, they came short. 

Towards the end of the first half, Rhinos lock Robert Aziku earned his second yellow card for a ‘dangerous tackle’ and off he went for an early shower. This highly anticipated game unfortunately didn’t produce many fireworks probably because of the wet pitch and lots of unforced handling errors from both sides. The lone try came earlier from Aziku from a charged down kick. 

Players seem to have had personal issues to sort out among themselves. Now with the benefit of the hindsight probably Justin Kimono would have been moved to 13 since he was attracting lots of attention from the Rhinos defence and was getting very slow ball. It was sad watching him stretchered away later. The Betway KOBS failed to get a losing bonus point and hence remain with 54 points while the Rhinos sneak on them with 52 points.

The Impis provided their fans with something to celebrate. Their 15-06 victory over the Warriors could be a pointer towards better days or perhaps a problem at Warrior’s camp. Going into this fixture, Impis were placed 10 and Warriors at 9. Impis denied Warriors the crucial losing bonus point. Impis leapfrogged the Warriors and Rams into 8^th position. Warriors find themselves in very unfamiliar territory and to compound matters for them they will be playing the Pirates next week.

The defending champions Hima cement Heathens retained their 4^th place position after a scrappy 15-03 victory over 9^th placed Rams at Kyadondo. Many of the known Heathens’ fans were busy watching the game (KOBS vs Rhinos) at Legends and I think they could be a bit unhappy with the failure to get a bonus point. Heathens move onto 46 points as Rams retain their 10 points on the log.

The Hippos played hosts to Mongers and this was certainly going to be cracker. I had earlier failed to make a clear prediction on this fixture. Hippos had looked so clinical in week 13 and Mongers are not well known travelers and especially with their 2 good players facing suspensions. Well Mongers got out the game unscathed and won 27-19 in Jinja. Mongers now have 41 points and the Hippos stay 7^th on the log with 14 points.

Summary of the current Premier 10 log

1.       Pirates                                                  60 points

2.       Kobs                                                     54

3.       Rhinos                                                  52

4.       Heathens                                              46

5.       Mongers                                               41

6.       Buffaloes                                              33

7.       Hippos                                                  14

8.       Impis                                                     11

9.       Rams                                                     10

10.   Warriors                                                 09

USA Rugby Sevens Las Vegas

Rugby Sevens Las Vegas.

For all those who watch International Rugby 7s, don’t forget to watch the 4th stop of the 2017-2018 HSBC Sevens World Series, Las Vegas Rugby 7s. With the Rugby World Cup 7s coming up in San Francisco in July, you definitely want to see what our Rugby Cranes will be up against in a few months.

The world’s best rugby players are out in Las Vegas for three days, where 16 countries will grind out 45 matches as they compete for world supremacy. Last Year was mind-blowingly epic that there is no way anyone should miss watching it this year.

Pools for Las Vegas Rugby Sevens

After this competition the 14 sides in the top tier Rugby 7s circuit will know exactly how they will be seeded in the groups for the World Cup. These sides include South Africa, England, Fiji, New Zealand, USA, Australia, Scotland, Canada, Argentina, Wales, France, Kenya, Samoa and Russia.

So the battle is on this weekend to accumulate points in order to secure the desired spot in the groups for the World Cup. Unlike other sports where seeding is random, Rugby is different. You earn exactly which group you would like to be seeded into for the World Cup 7s based on how well you perform in the first Seven Rugby Circuits during the qualifying year. These Circuits include; Dubai, Capetown, Sydney, Hamilton, Vegas, Vancouver, Hong Kong. 

How World Cup Rugby 7s seeding works?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhXWMIvFKBY

Because of this, it is essential for true 7s fans to watch the tournament this weekend because even with Vancouver 7s two weeks away, we can already tell how the ranking in points for the top tier sides will be for the most part after the Vegas 7s.

We can then anticipate the Hong Kong 7s tournament to seed the last 10 sides for the world cup. These sides include; Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Papua New Guinea, Cook Islands, Uruguay, Chile. 

This tournament is being held in Las Vegas which is about a 2 hour flight away from San Francisco. We will we be seeing the level of Rugby we should expect in San Francisco. For a side going to face some of the biggest teams in the world competing at the highest level, we don't want to be caught off guard by the pace and quality of Rugby the top tier teams exhibit every year in Las Vegas. Watching the players playing in Las Vegas and the way they are able to play two fast paced games daily in extreme heat and still perform at their best will help our side better prepare to face them in a city not too far from them but with a more mild climate on the West Coast of the United States.

San Francisco Rugby World Cup 7s 

2018, will be the first year that USA hosts the Rugby World Cup 7s and with the trajectory their side has been on, we can only expect an exceptional display by the home side come July.

Do not forget to buy your tickets for Rugby World Cup Sevens in July, we hope to see a lot of the Ugandan Fans at the AT&T stadium supporting our national side as it showcases on the world stage.

Where to buy Rugby World Cup 7s San Francisco 2018 tickets.
http://purchase.tickets.com/buy/TicketPurchase?pid=8456878&agency=GNTV_RUGBY6

For all those who would like to watch Las Vegas Rugby 7s this weekend. They will be live streaming the tournament this weekend on the link below as well as on the USA Rugby Sevens YouTube Channel and ESPN of course will keep you updated.

How to watch the Rugby Sevens Las Vegas this weekend.
http://livestreamingtv365.com/rugby/usa-sevens/

Do not miss out on quality Rugby this weekend. If you need to be converted from a 15s fan to a 7s fan, this is the tournament to watch. Rugby 256 will keep you updated on how the tournament progresses this weekend and where the World Cup seeding will stand by the end of the Rugby Sevens Las Vegas.

The 2017/18 Nile Premiership: Week 14 Preview

This week will be the first of 5 weeks of the competition where all the Uganda Rugby 7s team call ups will not participate due to the upped preparations for the 2018 Hong Kong World Series qualifiers to be held in early April. Teams have been forced to turn and twist their squads to fill the voids created.

KOBS vs. Rhinos
The Shell Rimula Rhinos have parted ways with Head Coach Brian Makalama due to some yet released reasons. Mathias Ochwo and John Musoke will stand in for now. Both Mathias and John are former Rugby Cranes Captains and they have a huge task ahead of them to get the players composed and focused on the job at hand. Because unfortunately, they will be facing KOBS this weekend. And at this moment this is a make of break game. This 4.30pm fixture is the biggest game this weekend because each side has a lot to lose if they walk away with a loss. Neither side will be holding back in this encounter.

Team Rhinos

In the first leg match the Rhinos shockingly lost 17-31 to the KOBS. Shocking because of the margin and the firepower within the Rhinos camp as compared then to KOBS’. KOBS currently in 2nd position with 54 points will want to get this done with quickly as they prepare for the Mongers next weekend and the old rival Hima Cement Heathens in week 16 of the competition. In order for KOBS to remain in the title race they will need a victory. Rhinos on the other hand will want to win it to boost their chances of finishing higher than 3rd position.

KOBS vs Rhinos

It has been often spoken openly earlier in the competition that the team which dominates the Legends’ derbies will fly with the overall trophy and that will again be put to the test today. The Rhinos at 3rd position on the log with 48 points will need to solidly unite for a seemingly well rejuvenated KOBS side which will be hoping that the recovery of the Rugby Cranes’ Captain Brian Odongo will continue unabated.

But we cant forget, both sides greatly contribute to the Rugby Cranes 7s team, so whichever side was better prepared for the absence of those players might win this one.

Pirates vs. Buffaloes
Earlier at the same grounds, the log leaders- Pirates will entertain 6th placed Toyota Buffaloes at 2.30pm. This will be another interesting match-up due to their similar brand of expansive plays. The Buffaloes bravely fought last weekend against the KOBS but came short.

Pirates vs Buffaloes

The Pirates so far seem untouchable with last weekend’s humbling of the Mongers in their backyard. The main area of interest will be how they will manage without their 6 starters who are now with the Uganda Seven’s team. Pirates have the lion’s share of the squad and it will be good to see how others step up. Buffaloes will miss the services of Eric Kasita-the Uganda Sevens’ captain.

Pirates is not the same team it was even last season. There is a flexibility and versatility that it possesses that might work in their favor this weekend if they manage to get past the Buffaloes. Missing 6 starters might be the least of their worries. However Buffaloes might capitalize on this to surprise Pirates and shock them. Last weekend it was Warriors that was hit with a curve-ball, who is to say this weekend it wont be Pirates.

KOBS vs. Rhinos

Heathens vs. Rams

The Heathens will be out to solidify their 4 placing on the log and they will want to secure an early bonus point against 8th placed Rams at home. The Heathens will want to end the season on a high note as reflected by their outstanding victory over the Rhinos last weekend.

Team Heathens

Hippos vs. Mongers
The Hippos shock win last weekend against the warriors will hopefully boost the home fans as they host Mongers. The Hippos at home are now a serious team and it will be foolhardy for the mongers to approach this fixture lightly. It is anybody’s game.

Warriors vs. Impis
Warriors desperate to make amends for last week`s shock 10-30 loss to newcomers hippos will hopefully push to earn a bonus point in this fixture. Impis provides the best stage for Warriors to bounce back and get away from the relegation zone.

Week 14 will see all try to garner as much points as possible as teams try to take advantage of the missing Uganda Sevens’ players. May the best teams win their encounters and may the fans also turn up in bigger numbers to support them.