One year later, rising star Bankabwire in pain over pending Shs5m surgery
Bankabwire in full flight. PHOTOS/COURTESY
What you need to know:
Bankabwire’s short story in rugby is nothing but inspiring. She was raised in a family of four and took football as her passion. She enrolled at the famed Amerigo Soccer Academy which is based at Narambhai Primary School opposite Jinja Main Hospital.
Pauline Bankabwire is distraught. She is deeply frustrated. She is in excruciating pain. The 21-year-old's love and engagement with rugby began just four years ago during the first Covid-19 break, a journey that has seen her quickly gain stripes and rise through the ranks to earn a call-up to the national sevens women’s team.
But today, instead of scoring tries, making crucial tackles or chasing down opponents, she walks with a painful limp while carrying a begging bowl alongside her teammate and friend Tina Akello as she desperately tries to raise funds for a surgery that could determine the future of her career.
For this interview, she arrives on a boda boda instructing the rider to go slow and observe all the traffic rules. She places her right leg down before carefully adjusting the injured left.
She then offloads the other very delicately wincing in pain. She then advances slowly while limping as the rider expresses his sympathy. Others around do the same. In this part of the world, boda riders are known as daredevils with street-hardened hearts but to see him feel sympathy, then the case is strong.
Football to rugby
Bankabwire’s short story in rugby is nothing but inspiring. She was raised in a family of four and took football as her passion. She enrolled at the famed Amerigo Soccer Academy which is based at Narambhai Primary School opposite Jinja Main Hospital. She had big ambitions to become a football star but then Covid-19 came and disrupted the status quo.
“I loved football but there was no training during Covid because of the lockdown,” Bankabwire narrates.
She was quickly lured to the oval ball as fate would have it. Her neighbours Shakim Ssembusi, Edward Emiemu and Ahmed Ssekyanzi were rugby diehards already playing for Walukuba Barbarians.
One day, they tested her skills and saw raw potential. A future star. The trio could have lured her to Walukuba’s female team Trojans but saw that her potential was for a higher team.
At that time, Walukuba was only reassembling their ladies team but Hippos had already made headways with their female team Nile Rapids.
The Rapids were already playing in the Eastern Regional League. The trio set aside their derby rivalry and introduced her to Tina Akello, another rising star who is now the captain of Nile Rapids and a national player.
“They introduced me to Tina who took me to Hippos (Rapids) in 2020,” she recounts. Bankabwire was then an O-level student at PMM Girls, a School that is credited for the rise of Nile Rapids and girls’ rugby in Jinja.
Her star started shining immediately. Smoothly alternating as a winger, center and left flanker, Bankabwire exhibited skill in the regional sevens in 2023 that caught the eye of the Lady Cranes Rugby Sevens coach Charles Onen.
Nicknamed ‘Mayor’ by her teammates, she was soon summoned to the Lady Cranes Sevens team that took part in the Stone City Sevens in Jinja, a tournament that also introduced the sevens circuit for women.
Dream turns into a nightmare
Her dedication and skill earned her a place on the national team, a dream come true for any young player. But what was supposed to be the start of a promising career turned into a nightmare.
“I picked that injury during a group game in the Stone City Sevens but it didn’t look too bad at the beginning,” she recounts.
Like many athletes, Bankabwire ignored the pain, hoping it would fade with time. She continued pushing through, determined not to let anything derail her momentum. She approached her team doctor Joel Muyambi for help and everything seemed under control.
The awkward fall
Months later, she was part of a Nile Rapids squad that wrote history by playing their first official fifteens games as they took part in the Uganda Cup.
The Rapids enjoyed a fairy tale run that saw them go all the way to win the title. However, while she was battling alongside her teammates in that final against Avengers, disaster struck.
“An opponent fell awkwardly on me, aggravating the injury. I felt a lot of pain.”
This time, the pain was unbearable. Bankabwire knew something was seriously wrong. Muyambi and the club referred her to Mulago National Referral Hospital for a magnetic imaging resonance (MRI) test to ascertain the gravity of the injury, it turned out worse than she thought.
Can't be tocuhed. Bankabwire (with ball in hand) races away.
You’re on your own
“The tests revealed a high-grade posterior cruciate ligament tear which called for surgery,” Bankabwire explains with a tear dropping on her cheeks.
Bankabwire approached the Uganda Rugby Union through the Lady Cranes management but was met with rejection.
“I first got injured from the national team and tried to get to them but they said it was at the club and therefore not their responsibility,” she reveals. URU had not responded to our inquiry by the time of filing this story.
The 22-year-old turned to her club as the last resort but the financial situation at Dam Waters didn’t help. A few members in the previous executive including former vice chairman Mohammed Rwakishaya and treasurer Kenneth Byamukama as well as fans cheerleader Olga Nyakachi resolved to start a fundraiser.
However, by Wednesday, the months-long drive had only collected slightly above Shs1.4m. Now, she finds herself in a desperate situation, unable to afford the Shs5m required for the surgery.
Holding onto hope
Every day that passes without surgery reduces her chances of making a full recovery. The longer the delay, the harder the comeback. Despite the pain and the uncertainty, Bankabwire has refused to give up. She reaffirms that her love for rugby remains unshaken.
"I just want to play again. I miss being on the pitch, competing, and doing what has become a part of me," she says.
With limited income and no formal financial backing, she has been left with no option but to seek help from the public.
Call to action
Bankabwire’s story should serve as a wake-up call for the Ugandan rugby fraternity and its administrators. If young talents can rise to the national team only to be discarded when injured, what message does that send to the next generation of players?
The Union and clubs must take responsibility for their players’ well-being. There needs to be a clear medical support system to ensure that athletes do not have to beg for help when they get injured representing their teams and country.
For now, Bankabwire’s bucket is painfully filling up slowly as she continues her fight not just against her injury, but against a system that has failed her. A system that values its athletes should never leave them fundraising on the streets when they get injured in the line of duty.
She still believes in rugby, but does rugby believe in her?
Pauline Bankabwire profile
Date of Birth: March 5, 2003
Occupation: Student
Position: winger, flanker, center and prop
Honours: 2023 Uganda Cup winner
Place of Birth: Jinja
Idol: Phillip Wokorach
Hobbies: rugby and chilling with friends.
Nickname: Mayor
