A gentle giant falls

It was on the night of May 16, 2021, that members of the Ugandan rugby fraternity received a grim WhatsApp message. In the starkest manner, it revealed that Robert “Soggy” Sseguya, a gregarious and yet intensely private person, had been checked into Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) in a “critical state.”

The ailment Ugandan rugby’s beloved son was grappling with had assailed him to the point that “he urgently needs blood platelets.”

The weekend before Soggy had felt a numbness that immediately told him that something was awry. He had just engineered a 25-11 bonus-point win over Plascon Mongers to secure fourth position for Jinja Hippos in the Nile Stout Rugby Premiership.

But as his charges toasted to the milestone, the 42-year-old teetotaller, who was accustomed to clocking several hours in the gym, felt so overwhelmingly exhausted that he was unable to stand up. He could barely walk to the ambulance that was pitchside. 

Although siren calls boomed uneasily in the air as Soggy was taken to Mukono International Hospital, his ghostly pains were – as Jinja Hippos’ top brass later confessed in a statement – thought to be no more than “a minor illness.”

But after being referred to, first, Pulse Specialist Clinic, and, later UCI, a routine test to check his blood count confirmed the worst – one of the most explosive incarnations of cancer, leukaemia.

During his playing days, Sseguya beat the odds to make the No.6 jersey his own. Given his size and weight, Soggy had to walk the thin line of set-piece and attritional battles upfront with skilful precision. He never backed away from a fight despite stark disparities.

Faced with an unusual enemy, Soggy yet again needed to summon a fight. True to his fighting spirit, he was discharged from UCI on the morning of June 22. Weighing a little over 30kg, he had come through the first phase of chemotherapy bent but not broken.

Subsequent reviews of his marrow sample would go on to reveal that the extraordinary finesse that had been employed to rescue him was not in vain.

But just when he had started to align himself firmly with being a cancer survivor (rosary beads never far away), disaster struck on the night of December 14. An infection – thought to be malaria – administered the coup de grâce.

Painful loss

Unsurprisingly, the Ugandan rugby fraternity was left painfully aware of its loss. Soggy was a colossus. Even after his retirement as a rugby player, he did not lose any of his swagger and fierce ambition.

Indeed, Soggy enjoyed equal and unstinted support in the dugout so much so that he was the head coach of the national men’s rugby union team before his cancer diagnosis.

A strict disciplinarian, he had a knack for reading the riot act to his players. He wanted his players – much like himself – to have a high pain threshold as Hana Mixed School’s cohort of 2014 came to learn.

Training sessions in the lead-up to that year’s Schools Rugby League final were punishing. After one such session that climaxed with the stars winking faintly through a pewter sky, Soggy told his young charges – with a melancholy of satisfaction – thus: “Without discipline, you won’t go far!”

It has always been evident to everyone that Soggy thoroughly relished coaching and all the clout that came with it. While in the dugout, his face always seemed to settle into a dark scowl as he watched events intently.

Soggy wore a near identical scowl during his playing days as he looked to have a measure of his opponents.

It was at Namilyango College that he learnt the ropes of several sporting disciplines. He particularly warmed up to rugby and boxing, with the latter teaching him infinite patience.

The patient craft that helped him dominate the national middleweight boxing category was soon put to devastating use on the rugby pitch.

It was Sseguya who delivered the knockout blow that helped Uganda seal an historic win over France at the Emirates International Trophy in December of 2004.

African champion

French protestations that the winning try only came after Soggy gained downward pressure after diving on his own kick ahead were imperiously waved away by officials.

Uganda, whose proudest rugby moment had up until then been vanquishing England’s under-23s at the 2003 Henley sevens, could now hail a scarcely believable 22-17 win.

Soggy, who had an air of intense and nervous preoccupation before the match, was mobbed by ecstatic Uganda Sevens teammates.

This joy unconfined was reproduced when Uganda’s rugby union team won the Africa Cup in 2007. Adrian Bukenya, the team’s winning captain, said “Soggy played some of his finest rugby” during a purple patch in which the scalps of Namibia and Kenya were picked up.

Whilst celebrating his 42nd birthday in August, Sseguya made known to his fellow African champions one wish. Before presenting the wish for their consideration, Soggy said of the class of 2007: “This was a dream team,” adding; “if given a chance…I want to build again.”

To which David Dobela, the winning coach, replied: “Happy Birthday Soggie… Enjoy your day. God bless you and your family.”

Soggy is survived by a wife, Dora, and three children.

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