Past failures propel Uganda to 7s success

Eric Nyeko MVP Nyeko was voted MVP. PHOTO BY AMINAH BABIRYE

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Impala piled the pressure on in the second half and it paid off when they found an opening in the Ugandan defence to level matters.

Nairobi- Uganda’s under-19 national team put aside their failures over the past two years to win the Safaricom Sevens at the weekend.

The Ugandan side had lost at the final stage in the past two years and the pain of falling short seemed to spur them against crowd favourites Impala Saracens of Kenya.

Captain Paul Epillo broke the line early into the game with a clever switch from Erick Nyeko to put the Ugandans in front before Allan Omonding converted to extend the advantage to 7-0.

Impala piled the pressure on in the second half and it paid off when they found an opening in the Ugandan defence to level matters. With the game tied at 7-7, both sides had chances to seal it off but were denied by handling errors on multiple occasions.

Team Uganda coach Robert Seguya shouted his voice hoarse on the touch-line and Erick Nyeko got his message right. The player produced a moment of genius with a 70m dash to score a try that was converted by Allan Omoding for the victory.

“A big chunk of the current side has been with me before when farcical officiating cost us for two years in a row. All I did was to ask them to play so well and give the officials no chance of denying us victory,” said Seguya.