After the second stop of the Nile Special Rugby Sevens concluded over the weekend in Gulu, with the Toyota Buffaloes and the Avengers winning the men and women’s titles respectively, the Sevens season takes a break.
It will return with the third stop in Entebbe on the weekend of August 23 and 24. But even with the Sevens taking a break, rugby does not stop. On Thursday, August 14, Blackrock College rugby club from Ireland arrive in the country for a series of activities that will run for nine days.
However, first on Blackrock’s itinerary is a rugby game against a select Ugandan side this Saturday, August 16 at the Kyadondo rugby club. This is one of many things that the visit of the Irish rugby club is expected to give. Blackrock College Rugby Club is a team from Blackrock, a suburb from the Irish Capital, Dublin.
It was founded back in 1882, and currently plies its trade in the second tier of Irish rugby. Last season, 2024/25, Blackrock finished third, just two places away from promotion to the top-flight league. This is a club that is etched in rugby folklore and their tour to Uganda should prove momentous.
The Uganda select side that will face Blackrock is not only going to be captained by one of the legends of the game, Michael Wokorach, but comprises of a number of Rugby Cranes players, that recently competed in the Rugby Africa Cup (RAC), where they finished seventh in the eight-team tournament.
A case in point, Phillip Wokorach, Alex Aturinda, Fahad Maido, Liam Walker, Aaron Ofoyrwoth and Joseph Aredo among others played in the RAC. They are expected to face the test of the Rocks as the Blackrock college rugby club are famously nicknamed. Godwin Kayangwe, the Uganda Rugby Union (URU) president said recently that such opposition is good for our players’ development in a competitive sense.
“Looking back at the opposition we faced during the RAC, it was clear that we need more test games to improve our craft as a team. Therefore, having games against sides from a test playing nation like Ireland, will definitely give our players immense experience,” Kayangwe said.
Hooker Cyrus Wathum, who previously played for the Rugby Cranes, and won the treble with Heathens in 2024, is another of the rugby’s unsung heroes that will be featuring in the game against Blackrock. He re-echoed the importance of the game against Blackrock, as stated by the URU.
But Wathum went further to point out that this is an opportunity for him to prepare for next season.
“Playing against opposition you do not know, teaches you a few different things about the global outlook of the game, which helps you improve as a player,” Wathum, who is ending his one-year hiatus from rugby, and will feature for the Victoria University Sharks in the 2025/26 season, noted.
Notably, the Blackrock College rugby team has produced a number of seasoned internationals. But most profound among them is outside centre, Brian O’Driscoll, who captained Ireland between 2003 and 2012.
Also, he captained the British and Irish Lions in 2005, boasting of top Rugby World Cup experience. The Blackrock will be travelling down to Uganda with a contingent of 59 people. According to Saidi Atibu, a coach of Kakira Simbas rugby club and also one of the honchos of the local organizing committee under whose auspices the visitors will be coming, the nine days will also include sports tourism.
“The members of Blackrock, who include 34 players will be visiting Lake Mburo National Park on top of experiencing white water rafting on the Nile in Jinja. That should bring in some much needed foreign exchange into the country. We intend to organize these kinds of tours every year. They should come in handy for the economy but for our rugby development, too,” Atibu said.
Furthermore, Atibu noted that since Blackrock is a community rugby side, they have their foundations in a college, which is an institution of learning. This has enabled them develop many rugby players from a young age, both boys and girls.
Equally, a total of 300 boys and girls, both in primary and secondary schools like Kakira High and St John Kakira are aligned to the Kakira Simbas to expedite their development in rugby, the same way Blackrock does in Ireland. This cannot be a bad model to copy.