The last time Uganda hosted the Africa Rugby Sevens Championship in 2022, they were simply dominant and unstoppable.
Uganda won its second championship with gusto and fervour under the stewardship of coach Tolbert Onyango. Onyango has since retired, and this weekend, September 26 and 27, Uganda will be led by coach Allan Otim as hosts of the Africa qualifiers at the Kyadondo Rugby grounds.
The target is to win these qualifiers, as the team aims to begin its climb up to the levels they once were. By 2023, Uganda were ranked third in Africa Sevens Rugby. But that is a position that they have since lost.
They now rank number five, which has since seen Uganda miss out on the bigger international tournaments, like the HSBC Sevens tournaments they had come very close to back then.
For a couple of years, Uganda competed in Cape Town and Dubai as they tried to cement a place at the HSBC tournaments, where the best Sevens rugby playing nations like England, South Africa, and even its neighbour Kenya competed.
It is a stage that proved pretty lucrative especially for Kenya, as it boosted their rugby union financially. Uganda appeared to have had a similar plan, although along the way, the Sevens team was dismantled, to pave way for the 15s team, which between 2024 and 2025, had its sights on trying to qualify for the 15s Rugby World Cup, due in Australia next year.
Players like Alex Aturinda, Pius Ogena, Aaron Ofoyrwoth, Ian Munyani, Timothy Kisiga, Desire Ayera, Adrian Kasito and Phillip Wokorach were drafted into the 15s team, putting a halt to their 7s adventure.
This has placed Uganda’s 7s team into a rebuilding phase of sorts. As a result, Uganda’s 7s team lost the competitive edge it had built three years ago, which resulted in dropping to fifth place in Africa at the moment.
Recent participation in international tournaments have not seen Uganda realize the podium finishes they had become accustomed to, when Michael Wokorach was still captain of the 7s team.
However, that is what the current squad intends to change, when they walk onto the Kyadondo ground this weekend. Apart from Kasito and Ayera, who were mainstays in the 2022 squad that won at Kyadondo, the greater majority of Otim’s squad will be experiencing this stage for the first time; an opportunity to write their bit of history.
There is no doubt that they are going to find it tough against Zimbabwe and Madagascar, for example. These two are seasoned Africa rugby competitors. In 2022, Uganda beat Zimbabwe in the final, while in 2017, a tournament that was played at Legends, a late surge from an Eric Kasiita team, saw Uganda edge Madagascar.
By all accounts, and going by history, Uganda cannot afford to be cocky because of what they have achieved in the past. Other nations like Zambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia have come here before and staged upsets.
Notably, the Africa Sevens qualifiers have come right on the back of Uganda’s Sevens season, which concluded last weekend with the the Kabaka Coronation circuit. Therefore, the players, most of whom competed in a couple of circuits, should be fit and well conditioned.
Walukuba Barbarians coach, Leonard Lubambula, whose team won the 2025 national sevens championship said of the Rugby Cranes that he expects them to do well in the Africa Sevens qualifiers.
He noted that for the time they have been training, they should be up to speed, adding that at this level the players must know what it takes to win. Lubambula noted: “Like I tell my players at the club, we must be resolute on defence. It is the platform upon which success in Sevens is built.
You must be difficult to breach. Add your athleticism, and you are good to go.” For a number of players on Uganda’s sevens rugby team, their recent trajectory has shown a steady rise in their displays.
The likes of Malcolm Okello, Allan Olango, and Roy Kizito have been impressive at their clubs. Confidence in their powers to succeed and win Uganda its fourth continental honour in Sevens rugby is high.
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