Sunday, April 26, 2009

URU awards night

The Uganda Rugby Union (URU) held it's 2008 awards dinner on Friday 24th April at the Grand Imperial Hotel.

ICEMARK-Uganda, the main sponsors of women's rugby in Uganda gifted each of the 16 players in the Lady Cranes 7's world cup squad 750,000 Uganda shillings with the exception of Justine Bayigga who received 1,000,00 shillings for being Uganda's top try scorer. Bayigga scored Uganda's only 2 tries at the 7's world cup.

In the individual URU awards, Ann Namubiru from Rangers Rugby Club scooped the Upcoming player award while the Lady Cranes 7's captain, Helen Buteme, took home the 2008 Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. It is Buteme's third URU MVP award.

Previous awards winners

Upcoming player
2007 - Aalliya Adania
2008 - Ann Namubiru

MVP
2004 - Helen Buteme
2005 - Helen Buteme
2006 - Rachel Kakaire
2007 - Christine Kizito
2008 - Helen Buteme


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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Lady Cranes 7's heroines lose out on UTL-USPA Personality of the year award

Uganda's most successful sports team - the Lady Cranes 7's team - lost out on the top prize at the Uganda Sports Press Association (USPA) gala sponsored by Uganda Telecommunications (UTL) held on 18th April 2009.


Lady Cranes collected 490 votes, just 10 less than Moses Kipsiro, the eventual winner of the USPA 2008 Sports personality of the year award. The scribes judged Kipsiro's fourth place finish at last year's Olympics in Beijing, second place at the World Athletics Final and winning the Belfast International cross-country a notch higher than the Lady Cranes' historic qualification for the 2009 Rugby 7's World Cup.


However, the Lady Cranes 7's team did not lose out completely. They came away with the first runner up award. Christine Kizito received the UTL-USPA 2008 Rugby player of the year award.


The Uganda Rugby Union (URU) annual dinner will be held on 24th March 2009. The URU top achievers for 2008 will receive awards as well as the Lady Cranes 7's World Cup team.



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Thunderbirds firmly on top

Thunderbirds' rugby club look to have cemented their lead after 2 legs of the UWRA 7's league.  Thunderbirds brushed aside Rangers with an easy 38-00 win before struggling to overcome Black Panthers 10-07.  Black Panthers beat Rangers 21-00 and trail Thunderbirds by 4 points in the league standings.

Thunderbirds so far have 12 points, Black Panthers 8 points and Rangers 4 points.  Harriet Kayonjo from Thunderbirds leads the points table with 7 tries.


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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Thunderbirds lose to Mwamba Invaders in 15's

The Thunderbirds hosted the Mwamba Invaders from Kenya at Kyadondo Rugby Club for a 15 aside inter-club friendly over Easter. Thunderbirds struck first through Justine Bayigga who sprinted clear of her marker and ran 50 metres, to take an early 05-00 lead. The Kenyans replied through Philadelphia Olando, after she collected a clever chip over the flat Ugandan defence by Doreen Remour. Remour dummied her way through the Ugandans for a try of her own to give the Kenyans a slim 5 point lead at the break.

Mwamba Invaders continued to dominate possession in the second half and tries by Mary Otieno and Remour converted by Remour and Angela Olum took the game out of the Thunderbirds’ reach. However, the Thunderbirds fought back gallantly in the last 10 minutes and were rewarded with a try by Christine Kizito.

Venue: Kyadondo Rugby Club, Uganda
Halftime score: 05-10
Fulltime score: 10-24
Yellow cards: None
Red cards: None

Tries (Thunderbirds): Justine Bayigga, Christine Kizito
Tries (Mwamba Invaders): Philadelphia Olando, Doreen Remour (2), Mary Otieno
Conversions (Mwamba Invaders): Doreen Remour, Angela Olum

Woman of the match: Doreen Remour (Mwamba Invaders)

Thunderbirds lead table standings after first leg of 2009 7's league

The UWRA women’s 7’s league resumes this weekend with the 2nd leg being held at Kampala Rugby Club. Thunderbirds lead the standings after winning the 1st leg held at Kyadondo Rugby Club in March. The scores were

Thunderbirds versus Rangers 67-00, Thunderbirds versus Black Panthers 31-00 and Black Panthers versus Rangers 41-00.


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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

South Africa chosen to represent Africa at 2010 XVs World Cup

IRB shows it's duplicity when in a move similar to the one where South Africa participated in the 2006 XVs World Cup in Canada, IRB has picked South Africa to represent Africa at the 2010 XVs World Cup in England. No qualifying tournaments in Africa, North America or South America! After going on about how they are keen to expand and strengthen the women's game and will support the lesser rugby nations it goes ahead to organise an exclusive members only competition where only the major rugby unions (with a concession of one slot for Asia) get to play each other and have the cheek to label it a world cup! All countries deserve a chance to compete for a place in the World Cup but only when they (IRB) have their interests to be served (i.e. impressing IOC).

New Zealand, England and France qualify automatically as they finished in the top 3 (in that order) in the 2006 world cup.

Europe (4 slots): Wales and Ireland have qualified as they finished in the top 4 during the 2009 women's 6 nations competition while Italy and Scotland will play off for the remaining 2 places with Spain, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Germany and Belgium next month in Sweden. Romania, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway and Serbia are all denied a chance to take part in the qualifiers.

Oceania (1 slot): Samoa and Australia will play home and away with the aggregate score determining who qualifies. Fiji and Tonga are left out of the qualifying process.

Asia (1 slot): The qualifying tournament with Japan, Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, and Singapore and possibly other teams will be held in October or November 2009 .

Africa: South Africa goes through directly. Uganda, Tunisia, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe are all denied a chance to compete for a place in the world cup. Although Rwanda and Burundi have active women's 15 aside teams their unions are not IRB affiliates so they would have missed out anyway.

North America: USA and Canada go through directly. Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Cayman Islands, and Bermuda are all denied a chance to compete for a place in the world cup.

South America (0 slots): No teams. Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and others denied a chance to represent South America at a XVs world cup.