Rugby Cranes 7s hit World Cup pinnacle

BY DEUS BUGEMBE

Playing at the World Cup is a childhood dream for every sportsman from every corner of the globe. It’s the pinnacle of every sport and once achieved, the memories are worth revisiting whenever opportunity calls.
Only a handful of Uganda national sides can boast of having played at the World Cup namely the She Cranes (netball), Baby Cricket Cranes (U-19s), Woodball, Lady Rugby Cranes and last but not least, the Rugby Sevens Cranes.
The latter made the 23-hour trip to San Francisco, USA for their inaugural cameo at the Rugby Sevens World Cup also known as the Melrose Cup in 2018.
It was a reward for their growing reputation that had seen them win back-to-back Africa Cups, play at the Commonwealth Games , make a double appearance at the HSBC World Sevens Series Qualifiers in Hong Kong and a couple of invites at the Dubai and Cape Town World Series legs.
But all in all, making the 2017 Africa Cup final was the trick that got coach Tolbert Onyango’s boys playing at the biggest stage of their careers.
The stage was set at the AT&T Park, home of National Football League side Dallas Cowboys, on the weekend of July 20–22. Out of the 24 nations participating at the showpiece, Uganda was seeded 20th above Jamaica, Zimbabwe, Papa New Guinea and Tonga but the Rugby Cranes were determined to leave a mark in San Francisco, USA.
“We have been working on our structures for some time now and we feel ready for the World Cup with nothing to lose or fear,” captain Michael Wokorach told Daily Monitor before the side departed for the global showpiece.
Rude awakening
Unlike in past World Cups where pool games had been the case before heading for knockout rounds, an initial knockout preliminary round featuring the nations ranked ninth to 24th presided, while the top eight seeds automatically progressed to the Round of 16.
In a nutshell, under this format, the World Cup champion had to win every match. Uganda came up against 13th seed Samoa in their first game and it was a one-sided affair that ended 45-7 in favour of the Pacific Islanders.
Samoa, then coached by the greatest of all the Sevens coaches Sir Gordon Frederick Tietjens, easily ran in six tries but Uganda had something to cheer about in Michael’s try - the first-ever for Uganda at the World Cup.
Getting off the mark
The loss to Samoa relegated Uganda from the Main Cup to the Bowl quarterfinals where they were came across fellow Africans Zimbabwe.
It was the repeat of the Africa Cup final 10 months ago. Like it had been in Kampala, Uganda got the better of Zimbabwe with a 24-10 victory. The win had Phillip Wokorach score a worldie that left commentators comparing his body movement to that of American entertainer Bruno Mars and Jagger in line with Coldplay’s famous tune. Phillip glided past two defenders in a sleek manner, leaving the entire AT&T Park applauding. Solomon Okia and James Odongo (2) also added tries to push Uganda into the Bowl semi-finals.
Fighting for places
The Bowl semifinal against Chile saw the Ugandans looked fatigued as they never really got going against an opponent they had beaten a couple of times before. Quick fire tries from the South Americans in the first, third and fourth minutes left Uganda with a mountain to climb. Phillip would add a brace and Timothy Kisiga a try but it was too little, too late for Uganda to mount a fight.
The result threw Uganda out of the silverware bracket into the dogfight for places. The Cranes camp felt they could have done more but got punished for a poor start thus losing by a three point margin. All left to fight for was a good position and pride with a game to go.
World Cup hattrick
Uruguay and Uganda found themselves competing in the 19/20 place playoff blitz in what turned out to be one of the most eventful games of the weekend.
The game had a total of 10 tries, four for Uruguay and six from Uganda including a Timothy Kisiga (pic inset) hattrick.
Uganda scored its tries first before a six-man Uruguay fought back to trim the deficit to 10 points. At the end of it all, Uganda finished 19th, a place better than its tournament seeding. “Representing your country and playing against the world’s best players was a good and unforgettable experience,” said skipper Wokorach on arrival from USA a couple of days later.

Individual plaudits
Only four players namely Joe Ravouvou (6), Siviwe Soyizwapi (6) Justin Geduld (5) and Luke Morgan (5) scored more than the Ugandan duo of Timothy Kisiga (4) and Philip Wokorach(4). Tolbert Onyango’s men registered 86 points from their four games against Samoa, Zimbabwe, Chile and Uruguay thus being ranked 14 out of 24 on the points table.
Of Uganda’s 86 points, Wokorach got 30, placing him sixth on the World Cup top points scorer’s log. Kisiga scored Uganda’s only hattrick against Uruguay in the 19 /20 place playoff game.
Wokorach could have registered more than four tries but he unselfishly set up Aaron Ofoyrwoth and Pius Ogena at some stage. His four tries were registered against Zimbabwe (1) and two against Chile before adding another against Uruguay thus scoring in three of Ugand’s four games.
Statistic wise, Phillip can make a case of being Uganda’s best player in San Francisco. He led with the most number of points (30), made the most runs (12), recorded the most offloads (4) and came third in most tackles made (10) behind Ofoyrwoth (14)and Solomon Okia(12).

World Cup heroes
Full Contingent
Players: Desire Ayera, Timothy Kisiga, Aaron Ofoyrwoth, Pius Agena, ByronOketayot, Adrian Kasiito, Solomon Okia, James Odong, Michael Wokoroch (captain), Justin Komono, Phillip Wokorach (vice-captain), Ivan Magomu
Officials:
Coach: Tolbert Onyango, Team Manager: Michael Wandera, Team Doctor: Benjamin Noah Kayongo Strength & Conditioning Expert: Ninnette Kryut.
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