Former Lady Rugby Cranes captain and legend Helen Buteme has lashed out at the way a helicopter carrying the Speaker of Parliament interrupted the start of Africa Gold Cup match between Uganda and Namibia at Legends Grounds on Saturday.
The helicopter descended right in the centre of the green carrying Speaker Rebecca Kadaga, after the two teams had run onto the pitch.
With just a few minutes to kickoff , the players who were preparing for the anthems, had to vacate to watch from the sidelines.
Kadaga disembarked to be welcomed by Uganda Rugby Union chairman Andrew Owor and Bernard Atiku all happening beyond the designated kick off time of 2:30 pm.
Buteme who retired from the Lady Rugby Cranes national team in 2014 after 11 years of distinguished service expressed her discontent about the stunt, joining several Ugandans who were utterly astonished by the incident.
She wrote on twitter; “That helicopter stunt was very unnecessary and extremely disrespectful to the 2 teams.”
That helicopter stunt was very unnecessary and extremely disrespectful to the 2 teams
— Koyokoyo (@Helkoybut) July 23, 2017
The game kicked off about 20 minutes late after Kadaga was then taken to her seat following inspection of the two teams.
Namibia defeated the Cranes 48-24 to win their fourth straight game of the campaign and stay top of the table with maximum points collected from each game.
