Uganda’s Malcolm Okello Daniel will leave Nairobi City as a man filled with pride. Not only did he captain his nation at the 2022 Rugby Africa U20 Barthes Trophy, but he also bagged the Top Points Scorer’s award.
Okello tallied an undisputed total of 42 points in three matches, playing at flyhalf in the first two and fullback in the last.
Against Kenya in the first match, he scored a try and kicked 2 penalties and 2 conversions with a 66.67% kick accuracy. That accounted for 15 of the 20 points Uganda scored in that quarterfinal loss.
Okello then turned his guns onto Cote d’Ivoire in the placement semifinal. He scored 21 – all penalties with a 71.43% kick accuracy – of Uganda’s 26 points in that nail-biting win that sent Uganda to the 5/6th placement final.
In Uganda’s final match against Tunisia, the bar Okello had set in the tournament was too high for him to reach. He only converted 2 kicks from 7 kickable opportunities within his range to post a 28.57% kick accuracy as Uganda lost, 24-11, to finish in sixth place.
However, that was more than enough for Okello to clinch the award that was presented by Janick Barthes, widow of late World Rugby Services Manager for Africa, Jean-Luc Barthes, in whose honour the tournament was named in 2016.
The top five in this category was completed by Zambia’s Anderson Mwila Mulenga (24), Namibian duo Oela Blaauw (22) and Geraldo Beukes (19), and Zimbabwe’s Takudzwa Musingwini (17).
The Most Valuable Player’s Award went to championship-winning Zimbabwean winger Tavango Ablant. At three tries apiece, the Top Try Scorer’s list was a three-way tie of Zimbabwean eighthman Tanaka Gondo Mukandapi, Beukes and Malagasy winger Tsiaroniaina Michel Rakotoarijaona.