She Cranes simply Africa’s best

At the end, Team Uganda’s camp jumped and danced. Those who had never stepped onto the court did. Coach Fred Mugerwa and his backroom staff were ecstatic upon the full-time whistle.

The She Cranes, under the lights of the Arena 1 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre were celebrating a narrow yet massive 49-47 victory over the 16th Netball World Cup hosts South Africa.

As the home crowd descended out in disbelief, Uganda had won the fifth-place play-off to cap the country’s best finish ever in tournament history.

“Finally,” with her face beaming, Uganda’s captain Irene Eyaru said in the post-match interview. The She Cranes had only beaten South Africa once in the past seven meetings, a 54-48 victory at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in England last August.

Yet, Mugerwa complained about officiating as the She Cranes lost 52-50 in the Preliminary Stage Two contest on Thursday.

But as promised, Mugerwa’s side avenged that painful loss. “The match went the way we wanted it to go,” a happy Mugerwa remarked. 

“When we went into that match, my last words to the players were that we shouldn’t make the mistakes we made in the first match we played against South Africa because we gave them a lot of respect and because of that they went ahead by many goals.”

From their World Cup debut at the 1979 edition in Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda came in 13th place. At the 2015 edition in Sydney, Australia, Uganda came eighth and they improved to seventh at the 2019 edition in Liverpool, England.

The revenge against the Spar Proteas yielded history by emerging as Africa’s best in Cape Town. “We’ve done it. It really feels like a gold medal. We’ve been working for it since last year,” Eyaru said.

“I am so happy. We are so proud, we’ve achieved. I am so proud of this team,” goal shooter Mary Nuba stated after a very tense encounter.

The England-based player had led Uganda’s charge to victory with 29 goals from 32 attempts and four rebounds. Indeed, Nuba’s statistics earned her the player-of-match honour on a day every department worked so hard.

First, goalkeeper Hanisha Muhammad and wing defender Shaffie Nalwanja claimed vital intercepts which gave Uganda a 12-11 lead after the first 15 minutes.

However, South Africa fought to level 23-23 at half-time but by the time that came, Uganda’s goal attacker Shadiah Nassanga was in rare foul trouble, a call away from a warning.

It forced Mugerwa to bring on Sarah Nakiyunga in her place and the substitute switched to wing attack with Eyaru now advancing into the arc.

Nassanga, who had claimed three player-of-match awards in seven matches, had departed with 10 goals from 14 shots and five assists.

But Eyaru smartly filled the gap, scoring 10 goals from as many attempts to add to her seven assists. Meanwhile, Nakiyunga had been clinical midcourt, making 10 assists in the tight contest whereas centre Margret Baagala had 21 assists.

Goal defender Falidah Kadondi, who had started in place of injured Christine Nakitto, together with Muhammad, really tired Proteas’ goal shooter Elmeré van der Berg who eventually finished with 36/43.

“Congratulations to Uganda. They kept possession of the ball, unfortunately, we wasted too many balls and you can’t afford to lose those sorts of balls,” Mugerwa’s opposite Norma Plummer reacted.

“We wanted it more,” Nuba added “I have to say, credit to Uganda, they really kept pushing,” Proteas’ captain Bongi Msomi admitted.

Now that Uganda finished as Africa’s best team at the championship, the She Cranes will return home to a warm reception Monday night.

Similarly, Uganda will be delighted to have its global ranking improve from eighth following the big win and the delight over Malawi on Friday.