Odongo: You will be moved by our style

KAMPALA. The 2017 Elgon Cup no longer appears as a blur on the horizon. The first leg of the competition, which since its first staging in 2004 has seen rugby union teams from Uganda and Kenya do more than exchange pleasantries, kicks off at Legends Club on Saturday.
Record winners and defending champions Kenya Simbas have given little away in terms of proof to suggest that their grip on the competition may be beginning to weaken. But after a grimly negative and entirely joyless performance left Ugandans numb with grief in last year’s reverse fixture, Rugby Cranes will hope that lightning does not strike in the same place.

If Saturday’s hosts are to shine with renewed purpose, they will need Marvin Odongo to be at the peak of his powers.
For the eighth man that largely means having a clean bill of health as he hardly plays with the handbrake on when fit.
Asked whether he believes his injury problems can now be viewed through a rear view mirror, Odongo shows a sense of humour by referencing Arsenal’s brittle midfielder Jack Wilshere. “I was becoming a Wilshere of sorts,” he laughs.
Laughters was, however, few and far between last week when loose forward landed awkwardly during one of Rugby Cranes’ line-out drills.
Odongo exited the training in obvious pain, leaving Rugby Cranes faithful with their hearts in the mouth. Line-out jumpers are susceptible to headlong falls remarkably similar to the one Odongo suffered.

The falls can fashion unremittingly bitter experiences especially for someone that once was as brittle as Wilshere. “I had a slight accident at practice last week, [but] all is well,” Odongo reveals.
The loose forward’s injury record can now be spoken of in past tense because it has neither dulled his performances or staggered his availability since returning to face Namibia last year. A torrent of ecstatic reviews greeted the eighth man’s inexhaustible talents in the losing performance.

On pitch action
The lopsided loss at the hands of Kenya during last year’s Elgon Cup first leg on home soil came too soon for Odongo. He was a bundle of nerves watching from the fringes as Uganda capitulated. “It’s never easy watching a game from the sidelines,” he says, adding, “It’s always better to be on pitch.”
Many reasons can be proffered as to what triggered such a lame duck showing against the old enemy.
Some say Robert Seguya tinkered and fussed obsessively both before and during the match. Others hold that the Simbas bothered Rugby Cranes with a far fiercer urgency than anything else. Certainly Darwin Mukidza did!

Most of Kenya’s tries -- and there were many of them on that dark day -- were scored off line-out bloopers. Odongo will be tasked with ensuring that this doesn’t happen on Saturday.
To beat the Simbas, Rugby Cranes players will have to knock runners over in midfield. Former Rugby Cranes outside-centre Timothy Mudoola says Uganda stands a great chance if it can go in hard at the breakdown, and work the Simbas in the set pieces.
“The Kenyans are dangerous in open play alright, but their game against Germany reminded us about their weaknesses.”
Indeed Kenya unquestionably has its flaws. The Simbas always play second-fiddle to Uganda in set pieces.

Besides the line-out, which has always proven to be a great attacking platform, Rugby Cranes will rely on Odongo’s intelligence behind the scrum during Saturday’s moment of reckoning.
The eighth man is, however, not comfortable with a characterisation that suggests bullying and blustering is all Rugby Cranes is capable of. “I can promise you one thing, you are going to be moved by our style of play.”
Saturday cannot come soon enough!

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