Cranes have their work cut out

KAMPALA.

This year marks two decades since Rugby Cranes took the road less travelled by playing their first Test match. Then as was the case last Saturday, the match took place at Legends Club, with Kenya running out 33-22 winners.

Aged just 19, Adrian Bukenya captained Uganda back on that sun-bathed day in 1997.

On Saturday, back to the place where it all started, he watched the Kenya Simbas not only hold Rugby Cranes scoreless after the breather, but also overturn an eight-point deficit en route to taking a 23-18 first leg lead in the 13th staging of the Elgon Cup.

Uganda evidently has its work cut out in its bid to stop Kenya from gunning for La Decima (a 10th Elgon Cup title) at the RFUEA Ground in Nairobi on June 24.

Rugby Cranes have faced many intractable problems in the Kenyan capital, but they did at least manage to surmount them in 2006 before winning the first of their three Elgon Cup titles.

After sharing the spoils during a 7-7 nail-biter in Kampala, Chester Williams put down some tantalising dots for Rugby Cranes players to join at RFUEA Ground. They did just that during an absorbing 22-20 win.

Not convincing?
As groundbreaking as that win was, it wasn’t Bukenya’s finest moment in a Rugby Cranes strip by any stretch of imagination. His record as Rugby Cranes captain is enviable and interwoven with the remarkable capture of the 2007 CAR Cup (now known as Rugby Africa Gold Cup).

Only one survivor from the 2007 CAR Cup-winning team -- the indefatigable hooker Alex Mubiru -- played in Saturday’s 23-18 loss. Bukenya reckons the result shows the alarming extent at how current Rugby Cranes players struggle to capture the crucial nuances of “game plan management.”

The former Rugby Cranes captain says Uganda pretty much snatched defeat from the jaws of victory last Saturday.
“This was a game we should have won. Our game plan management cost us dear.”

Fullback Philip Wokorach never reached the excellence many -- Kenyans inclusive -- believe he is capable of scaling. Eighteen of a possible eighty minutes had been negotiated when Wokorach uncharacteristically lost a ball in hand without a scintilla of pressure around him. Kenyan scrum-half Samson Onsomu, scarcely believing his luck, duly pounced on the clanger before crossing the whitewash with aplomb.

The self-inflicted wound proved to be mortal for Wokorach. After botching a couple of kickable penalties, the lanky fullback had warmed his way back into the hearts of Rugby Cranes faithful by twice splitting the uprights in the 28th and 34th minutes.

But, following a successful taming of insurrectionary impulses from home fans, Wokorach once again invited ridicule upon himself by conceding a cheap penalty in the 75th minute. That would prove to be the final nail in Uganda’s casket.
“I would have substituted him to be honest,” Bukenya said after a tough day on the job for Wokorach.

Bukenya used to play the eighth man role for Rugby Cranes. Marvin Odongo turned in a blinder playing the same role last Saturday. Odongo exerted impressive tactical control behind a scrum that often times struggled to live up to its billing.
One of Bukenya’s most fulfilling moment in a Rugby Cranes strip was when Rugby Cranes sent the Kenyan scrum Test backpedalling for the maiden time in a Test during a CAR Cup semifinal win in 2007. That was then.

The Odongo show
On Saturday, collective intensity and controlled physicality from the Kenya Simbas left Uganda on the back foot. This was even more pronounced after Odongo was sin-binned in the 11th minute.
The eighth man made amends by scoring a try barely a minute after returning from the sin bin. The try was made possible by sensational line-breaking and a tremendous offload from Scott Oluoch. The open-side flanker believes the best is yet to come from Rugby Cranes. “I believe the boys were just holding up. When they open up [at RFUEA Ground], Kenya will definitely fall.”
Oluoch’s coach, the South African John Duncan agrees with the veteran loose forward.

“We are competitors. We want to go down there (RFUEA Ground) and take the game to them (the Simbas).”
Duncan’s opposite number and compatriot Jerome Paarwater expects nothing short of a tough game in Nairobi especially since it will double as a Gold Cup fixture.

“Uganda always plays well in Nairobi, so it’s going to be tough. We plan to secure the ball through the breakdown and keep it through phases.”

It is a plan that has earned the Simbas rich rewards against Uganda time and again. Bukenya, who capped a dozen times for Uganda, says the poor streak can be snapped if Rugby Cranes players take the national strip a little seriously.
“National caps are not to be taken lightly. Everyone should be made to count because you don’t know if the next one will ever come.”

Since the Test debut in 1997, wins for Uganda have been few and far between. They certainly can be counted off the fingers of one palm.

The most thrilling of them all came in October of 2002 when the boot of current Rugby Cranes assistant coach Robert Seguya secured a 31-22 win. Will the boot of Wokorach be just as devastating on June 24? There will be no better way for the fullback to atone for a rare off day.

ELGON CUP 2017 FIRST LEG RESULT
Rugby Cranes 18 - 23 Kenya Simbas