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Tough lessons for debutants Lady Cranes
Peace Lekuru attempts a pass. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
The Lady Cranes had put themselves in pole position to qualify following their fourth-place finishes in Dubai and Montevideo earlier in the year respectively.
Uganda national rugby sevens women’s team’s dreams of playing in the HSBC SVNS Play-off in Madrid later this month were dashed after falling short in the final round of the Challenger series in Krakow, Poland over the weekend.
The Lady Cranes had put themselves in pole position to qualify following their fourth-place finishes in Dubai and Montevideo earlier in the year respectively.
They needed to match at least that run with another semifinal appearance in Krakow but fell a step short.
A slow start in group B saw them lose 17-14 to Paraguay and 31-20 in the first and last matches in the pool but their narrow 27-26 win over Papua New Guinea dragged them to the quarterfinals. They finished third just above Papua.
That poor group show was rewarded with a quarterfinal against the best team over the three circuits, China, who thumped the Ugandans 38-14 to extinguish their dreams.
The Cranes finished the series in seventh place after beating Paraguay in a dead-rubber revenge match to put them sixth with 36 points in the overall rankings.
Agnes Nakuya( C) holds on the ball.
China beat Belgium 21-12 in the semifinal and then thrashed hosts Poland 36-0 to emerge winners in Krakow as well as overall winners from the three circuits with a maximum of 60 points.
Argentina finished fifth to earn the twelve points that booked their flight to Madrid as second best overall. Belgium and Poland are the other two teams.
Uganda’s neighbour and Africa’s other representative, Kenya narrowly missed on the ticket after losing to Belgium 26-7 in the third-place playoff to finish fourth. Kenya needed not only to win the match but to do it with a big point difference to leapfrog Poland in the final standings.
World Rugby Challenger Series - 2024
Dubai M'video Kraków Total
1 China 20 20 20 60
2 Argentina 16 18 12 46
3 Belgium 12 16 16 44
4 Poland 10 12 18 40
5 Kenya 18 6 14 38
6 Uganda 14 14 8 36
