Uganda Men’s Sevens head coach Tolbert Onyango will be seeking improvement in performance from his charges at the Emirates Invitational 7s.
Uganda finished 8th out of 16 teams in their last outing at the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series in South America. Onyango has set his eyes on a better performance in Dubai, where only eight men’s teams will be competing.
Our objective is to get back to the high-intensity 7s environment. We are seeking improvement in performance from a year ago where we finished eighth in the Challenger Series.
Tolbert Onyango
The eight teams include Canada, Kenya, Spain, France, Argentina, and Japan who are core teams in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. Japan were the winners of the inaugural Challenger Series while Chile finished fourth after the two rounds.
Isaac Massa scores Uganda’s match winning try 
Aaron Ofoywroth sprints for the try. 
Desire Ayera breaks tackle 
Nobert Okeny 
Ian Munyani embraces Desire Ayera after scoring a try. 
Solomon Okia
Uganda thus travels to Dubai as the lowest-ranked men’s team but Onyango believes he has selected the best men for the task. He has made only one change from last year in his squad announcement for the Emirates Invitational 7s.
Onyango says his choices have been influenced by the players’ ability to play the game under pressure with more interest in those who can play in multiple positions.
This tournament has been organised to help the teams in their preparations for the Olympic Games. For Uganda, it is an opportunity to test themselves against some of the best teams in the world ahead of the Repechage in Monaco later in June.