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 2nd 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 8th 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 4th place position after a scrappy 15-03 victory over 9th 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 7th on the log with 14 points.
Summary of the current Premier 10 log
1. Pirates
2. Kobs
3. Rhinos
4. Heathens
5. Mongers
6. Buffaloes
7. Hippos
8. Impis
9. Rams
10. Warriors
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