Uganda Rugby Sevens at the 2019 Africa Sevens Championship.

Earlier days of training for the Uganda 7s team this year outside the Nelson Mandela Stadium, Nambole. Standing extreme left is the Sprinting coach Ali Gaimoko.

The team Earlier yesterday at Entebbe before they flew out

Opening round for some teams.

Uganda at the Safari 7s.

Official logo for the 2019 Championship.

Coach Tolbert Onyango at the 2019 Safari 7s.

2017 Africa Rugby Sevens Champions at Legends Rugby Club at Kampala.

The Uganda Seven’s rugby team jetted to Johannesburg today where they will play it out with 13 other African teams for the African Sevens Championship which will be held from 8th to 9th November under a new and similar format to that used at the 2018 World Cup Sevens in Sans Francisco, USA.

This year’s competition will also double as the 2020 Olympics Qualifiers with a single slot for the African Champion. Teams which will finish 2nd and 3rd will have another chance to qualify at the Repechage stage of the process which will be held on 20th and 21st June 2020. The Rugby Sevens at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics Games will played from the 27th July to 1st August 2020.

In last year’s Africa Sevens Championship, Uganda surrendered its 2 years’ grip on the title to Zimbabwe Cheetahs (19-24) in a tense semi final in Tunisia. Zimbabwe went ahead and beat Kenya 17-05 in the final. This year’s competition will be held at Bosman Stadium, a neutral venue since South Africa already qualified as one of the top 4 teams in last season’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series alongside Fiji, USA and New Zealand.

Based on last year’s results, Zimbabwe are ranked as seed 1 followed by Kenya (seed 2), Uganda (seed 3), Madagascar (seed 4), Zambia, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Namibia, Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.

The opening round just like last year in Sans Francisco will be a knockout stage on Friday 8th November. The 7 teams which win the opening round plus the best overall loser will head to the Championship quarters stage. The teams are paired thus for the opening round: Zimbabwe vs. Nigeria (10:00am EAT), Kenya vs. Ivory Coast (10:22am), Uganda vs. Mauritius (10:44), Madagascar vs. Botswana (11:06am), Zambia vs. Ghana (11:28am), Tunisia vs. Namibia (11:50am) and finally Senegal vs. Morocco (12:12pm).

The teams which will lose at the Opening round will continue participation at the trophy stage where the teams will be classified from position 9 to 14.

The teams which will win their opening round games will be placed in 2 pools, A and B thus;

Pool A: Winner M1, Winner M4, Winner M5, Best loser

Pool B: Winner M2, Winner M3, Winner M6, Winner M7

The Championship teams will play 2 extra games in their pool on Friday. On Saturday the teams will complete their pool games and proceed to the semi finals stage of the competition. The Games will be live on the Rugby Africa Facebook page.

The Uganda team has a fairly good chance to win the opening round and go all the way. It is easier to qualify for the Olympics and it will only take Uganda to win the Championship. The biggest threat to Uganda will obviously be Kenya and Zimbabwe. These 2 teams have won the African Championship thrice a piece while Uganda has won it twice (2016 and 2017).

Before departing to South Africa Head Coach Tolbert Onyango stated that the team is ready to battle and this was owing to the mix of youth and experience. He was hopeful that the team will make Uganda proud.

The Uganda Rugby Men's 7s squad:

Ian Munyani

Massa Isaac

Ogena Pius

Aaron Oforywoth

Adrian Kasito

Aredo Joseph

Levis Ocen

Ssebuliba Lawrence

Odongo James

Kevin Kerumundu

Philip Wokorach

Okorach Michael (Captain).

Management Team:

Coach: Tolbert Onyango

Team manager: Michael Wandera

Physiotherapist: Noah Kayongo.

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