Lady Cranes for Dubai/South Africa

David Mutaka and Robert Sseguya will soon be trimming their 19 woman squad to 12 as they prepare for the Dubai 7's in Dubai later this month and the Nelson Mandela Bay 7's in South Africa next month. Although neither of the trips have been confirmed the women rugby players are confident and all set to go.

The first set of trials were held on Saturday and the progress of 400 metre national sprint champion Justine Bayiga was keenly noted. Bayiga, who represented Uganda in the 400 metres at the 2008 Beijing summer Olympics, has recently traded her runners spikes for rugby boots and has been undergoing drills with the 7's squad for the past one month. Bayiga was called up to the team in a bid to inject some pace into the Lady Cranes' attack and if she can master the basics of the game she will be a lethal addition to the team.


ugrugbychiclet

Final teams for the 2009 women's 7's RWC

16 teams qualified for the world cup from 6 regions.

CONSUR (South America)
Brazil

FIRA-AER (Europe)
England
Netherlands
France
Russia
Spain
Italy

(CAR) AFRICA
South Africa
Uganda

(FORU) OCEANIA
Australia
New Zealand

ARFU (ASIA)
Japan
Thailand
China

NAWIRA (North America)
Canada
USA

There will be 4 pools of 4 teams and IRB has seeded 8 teams according to their relative strengths and how they performed in their regional qualifiers. The rest of the teams will be drawn randomly into the 4 pools.

seed 1 - England
seed 2 - Australia
seed 3 - Canada
seed 4 - New Zealand
seed 5 - Japan
seed 6 - Netherlands
seed 7 - South Africa
seed 8 - Brazil

Lady Cranes squad for the World Cup

The URU/UWRA have recalled all the 12 players that recently qualified for the IRB women's 7's rugby world cup due in Dubai, March 5th to 7th 2009.

Christine Kizito, Josephine Namayega, Winnie Atyang, Rosenburg Kanyunyuzi, Harriet Kayonjo(Thunderbirds), Fortunate Irankunda, Brenda Kayiyi, Prossy Nakakande, Helen Buteme (Black Panthers), Aliya Adania, Charlotte Mudoola and Mary Kyoita (Rangers) made history when they reached the main cup final of the African qualifier tournament thus booking a place at the inaugural IRB women's 7's rugby world cup and a place in Ugandan history. No other sport - men or women's - has succesfully qualified for a World Cup.

Asha Ssonko, Dorothy Nekesa, Rachel Kakaire, Agnes Nantongo, Sauda Adiru (Thunderbirds), Claire Anena (Black Panthers) and Ugandan national 400m champion Justine Bayiga have earned call ups to David Mutaka and Robert Sseguya's training squad.

The women have already resumed training and are hoping to travel to South Africa and Dubai later this year and San Diego, USA early next year for build up tournaments as part of their world cup preparations.


ugrugbychiclet