Rugby Cranes in Chile ahead of World Rugby 7s Challenger Series.
After a stunning performance at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where they finished 10th, the Rugby 7s have turned their attention to the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in Santiago, Chile. The winner of this tournament is automatically promoted to the HSBC World Rugby 7s Series.
Uganda has been grouped with Germany, Uruguay and Lithuania in Group C, at the tournament that will play host to 12 male and female hopeful teams. Uganda and Germany are no strangers on the 7s turf, having met 4 times before, Germany going away with all the spoils.
However, this hasn’t shaken the Uganda camp. In an interview with World Rugby, coach Tolbert Onyango expressed full confidence in his boys and what they can deliver.
“It’s going to be tough to get through that pool, but we’ll give it our level best and see how the results pan out for us.”
Coach Tolbert has also taken cognizance of the fact that the cranes tend to start off slow then pick up momentum as the tournament goes, but this may cost them since the open their quest for glory with the silky Uruguayans on Friday, 12th August at 7:23pm.
“Not so much Kenya, because against Kenya we started off slowly and with two yellow cards we couldn’t really win that game, we were handicapped already.” (Citation: World Rugby interview with Coach Tolbert Onyango)
SQUAD NEWS.
The Uganda Rugby 7s squad that electrified the Coventry Stadium in Birmingham has not been changed. What appeared to be an injury scare to forward Desire Ayera’s knee seems to have been expeditiously handled, so we should expect DJ Fufu to do DJ Fufu things down in Santiago.
Here is the full Squad:
Michael Wokorach (C)
Ian Munyani
Isaac Newton Massangazira
Alex Aturinda
Aaron Ofoyrwoth
William Nkore
Adrian Kasito
Claude Otema
Timothy Kisiga
Karim Arinaitwe
Philip Wokorach
Desire Ayera
Nobert Okeny
All the group games for the Challenger Series shall kick off on Friday, 12th August, 2022, from which the top performers shall proceed to the knock out stages to fight for the ultimate prize.
Uganda’s Group Fixture:
12th August, 2022.
7:23pm Uruguay Vs Uganda
13th August, 2022.
12:39am Germany Vs Uganda
6:04pm Uganda V Lithuania
All games shall be live on the World Rugby YouTube channel. Here is the link for the World Rugby 7s Challenger Series: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE28rwYoaV7jvU6GVzdu_GQ