Pirates has lost points after the club’s weekend fortunes got drowned with a Uganda Rugby Union (URU) verdict that overturned the walkover of the day in favour of Mongers.
The tie between the two top flight Rugby premiership sides had been branded a “no-show” for Mongers and a walkover technically awarded to Pirates but URU has cleared the air by switching and giving the points to the former.
In a document released earlier on Tuesday by the rugby governing body, the incident is explained as in reference to the fixture for 9th December, 2017.
It partly read;
It has come to our attention that a walk over was awarded to Black Pirates at 15:06 hours after Plascon Mongers failing to play the game.
We have received the referee’s report which was read to the committee members and acknowledged that with the facts available in the submission, they didn’t concur with the decision made by center referee Mr. Denis Anguyo.
With the above in place, the committee has decide [sic], the walkover points be handed to Plascon Mongers, since the host team Black Pirates failed to provide and an [sic] ambulance on time.
Pirates had not lost any single match, defeating Impis 43-03, Heathens 23-16 and Rams 45-03 in subsequent match days on the season.
A change in venues for the fixtures happened a couple of days before match day and despite Pirates’ home being Legends Rugby grounds, they were technically hosts of the match at Makerere.
A former player for the Uganda fifteens u-19 rugby team, now journalist in Rwanda, Arnold Kwizera has since criticized the move, calling it political.
Politics always killing the sport, oh well… https://t.co/5gKzWArkRb
— Kwizera (@TherealKwizera) December 12, 2017
Rival club Rhinos could only smile at the verdict as only two sides, them and Kobs remain the only unbeaten sides after four outings. Rhinos edged Heathens 13-20 at Kyadondo.
**smiles in table standings** 😊😊 https://t.co/JCsXJOtvqP
— Shell Rimula Rhinos (@RimulaRhinos) December 12, 2017
Saturday Results
- Heathens 13-20 Rhinos
- Pirates 28-00 Mongers (WalkOver)
- Buffaloes 08- 22-08 Kobs
- Makerere Impis 06-03 Rams
- Jinja Hippos 10-29 Warriors