Gwokto enjoying “sweet pressure” of playing under big brother's shadow

Uganda are down 22-00 at halftime. Everyone's head is in their hands. Fans turn into coaches, pinpointing the team's frailties in a fashion that would make Rassie Erasmus look and sound like a novice. 

Clearly, Uganda's problems in the opening 40 needed a superstar to rise from the dead and save the game.

Phillip Wokorach, put his hand up and scored Uganda's opening 13 points to restore some hope.

With 11 minutes left, the mercurial fullback received the ball from his young brother, Innocent Thomas Gwokto to the right, and danced through the Zimbabwe defence. 

Gwokto had run a strong supporting cast, and when Wokorach got tackled by the visitors' last defender, he released Gwokto, who sprinted clear to the try line. Wokorach stepped up and converted. It all happened in a blink, and just like that, the game came to within two points. Zimbabwe hung on for their dear lives till the final whistle.

All Uganda's points came from the sibling pair, a dream that really came true that afternoon, with their mother in attendance. Bitter for the team's loss but you can't convince me that their family didn't feel good about the two boys' performance that day. 

The truth is, if people were still doubting Gwokto, his display that day put a lid on their lips. Away from that particular incident, Gwokto's second half outing in the midfield was commendable, especially after Jones Kamiza, his starting partner, had had an indifferent game and got hauled off.

Brothers-in-arms

In the sporting world, siblings naturally face eternal scrutiny and comparisons. Especially when you are a brother to Wokorach, Uganda's biggest rugby talent.

“I have had to grow up so fast under my brother's shadow and try to create my own path but it's not easy. I have to work thrice as hard to maintain the standards and silence the doubters. But it is also sweet to have your big brother as the ultimate example, role model and mentor,” observes Gwokto.

Growing up in the Nakawa Estates, a stone's throw from Kyadondo Rugby Club, there was only one way. Rugby was obviously going to be the sport of choice. Despite the fact that Wokorach took it with his all, Gwokto was not very interested in the oval ball.

He was into football. After all, their father, Daktali Jalobo, is a famed name in the Ugandan football tales of the 1980s. Jalobo played top flight football for Nile FC and Uganda Cranes.

So when Gwokto chose football over rugby, he was only following a familiar path. 

“Rugby looked rough for me. We used to enter Kyadondo and watch games and that sport was not the thing for me. I never envisioned myself going into that kind of sport,” Gwokto looks back with a smile.

Not with Wokorach's persuasion. But as day followed night, Gwokto found himself joining the sport from its most safe and enjoyable entry points: tag rugby. You can clearly see it in his game. The elusiveness, the eye for gaps and general IQ.

The talent was always there, so he joined Tigers and got promoted to Stallions. Gwokto kept pushing himself and at Stallions, he firmly believed that he could play in the league, but the bosses felt he was still young for the rigors of topflight rugby.

"I felt disillusioned and decided to cross the border to Kenya for both rugby and education opportunities," he recalls.

Kakamega was the destination. Gwokto had agreed a scholarship between Kabras and Masinde-Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) to study mechanical engineering and play for Kabras II. 

Unfortunately the deal fell through and he returned to Uganda. 

Wokorach was still in the UK, undergoing rehabilitation from the leg fracture sustained in February 2015.

On Gwokto's return, the Kyadondo top brass were still reluctant to promote him to either Buffaloes or Heathens. He decided to join Legends-based Warriors.

That shook many. Wokorach's brother playing for a club across the road. The big brother stepped in and convinced Gwokto to return home. He obliged and rejoined Stallions for a season before earning his promotion to Buffaloes.

The big step

In 2018, Gwokto joined Heathens. That off-season, Heathens went big on transfers, despite the fact that many were just their sons returning home. 

Halfback Aaron Ofoyrwoth was returning to Kyadondo from Kenya, same as outside back Joseph "Ojoo" Oyet from Warriors. Prop Victor Wangobo is the other player they netted in that transfer window. 

I remember interviewing Gwokto after the squad photoshoot on a wet Thursday afternoon at Kyadondo, clad in the green Hima Cement jersey the team used to don back then.

"It's a dream come true. I will give my best because as a Kyadondo kid, Heathens is the ceiling," he answered.

What has followed is a trophy haul that includes three league titles and two Uganda Cups plus a 7s title.

But above all, cementing his place in the team's midfield where he has played both inside and outside positions, and ultimately, the national team where he gets the rare opportunity of playing alongside his brother.

"National team comes with too much scrutiny because of him (Wokorach). I can't run away from the fact that I am his brother but I am enjoying my own game, my own journey as a person. He is my mentor and teammate but I am my own person in other aspects," he adds.

Do they room together during national camps?

"No. He rooms with his friend (Ivan) Magomu. We only meet and talk like teammates. Then outside the national team confines, we can talk about family stuff," adds Gwokto. 

However much Gwokto is trying to pave his own journey as a rugby player, he will always be talked about in the same line with his big brother. On pitch, he will try to be his own person.

And the journey continues.