New gem wins opener for Heathens

. Heathens unveiled a new gem on Friday and one is guaranteed dancing feet whenever Buffaloes’s former star Phillip Wokorach plays.

Allan Musoke has really cut his niche as an emcee at rugby games. His best efforts did little to remind the handful of fans that Summerkamp are a better team than they appeared on Friday.

On the opening day of the season, Musoke kept reminding everyone who cared to listen that a visit to champions MTN Heathens was indeed a “baptism of fire.”

Final Score: Heathens 77-0 Summerkamp. The latter didn’t do much wrong. In fact, for the opening 15 minutes, they gave a relatively good account holding Heathens scoreless.
Part of it was down to their guts but the larger part was the rust. Heathens really looked like a team in need of practice as knock-ons and forward pass violations were the norm.

Their pursuit of a fifth successive Nile Special Super 8 Rugby League didn’t need them to engage second gear. However, the tries flowed like the electric lines just overhead the Kyadondo grounds.

Lock Denis Mulo opened the floodgates. Rugby Cranes skipper Mathias Ochwo, Michael Wokorach, debutante Philip Wokorach and Jonathan Onen put daylight between the two sides before halftime.

Phillip’s surge, worth 16 in the second half including two tries and three conversions, was down to shifting from the wing to fullback as Benon Kiiza got a breather.

It’s at fullback that Philip became a darling at Hana Mixed School and Toyota Buffaloes. The crowning moment of that was being named the best upcoming player last year.

Further tries from forwards Scot Oluoch, on as a replacement, and Arthur Mukama, wings Onen and Allan Okello (2) didn’t turn the lights away from Philip. Fittingly, he was named Man of the Match. “It’s been my dream since I was a kid to play for Heathens and now I want to play for the national team,” said Philip.

You are guaranteed dancing feet whenever he plays. He could have beaten Summerkamp, a team that won 13 and drew once in the lower tier to earn promotion as Nile went down, on his own!

The visitors’ only attempts to score were two penalties both of which went wide. Legends is now open and practice needs to be intensive in earnest or else they will spend the year worrying about relegation.

Like Nile before them who often shipped in cricket scores for two years before relegation last year, Summerkamp are in for a long year though it’s been considerably reduced. Musoke, an African champion in 2007 and arguably Uganda’s greatest player, knew this was the toughest game they will play and luckily it came this early in the season.