Uganda Rugby Cranes and Lady Rugby Cranes are, for the first time in history, on tour in Tunisia for a two-test tour of the North African nation. The two tests, for both men’s and women’s national teams, were played on Wednesday, November 22 and Monday, November 27 at El Menzah National Rugby Stadium in Tunis.
Plans for this tour were finalised and confirmed late last month with both unions coming together to increase the number of tests played by their respective national teams. Uganda, in particular, aims to make the jump from two tests (Elgon Cup vs Kenya) per year up to seven, within this Rugby World Cup cycle.
In the first tests, the Lady Rugby Cranes (women) suffered a 26-17 defeat while the Rugby Cranes (men) won 20-14. Both were tightly contested matches as the two nations sized themselves up.
Despite losing, Lady Rugby Cranes showed character to recover from the record 87-03 defeat to Kenya in Kisumu a fortnight earlier. They scored tries through Angella Nanyonjo, Emilly Lekuru, and Juliet Namukwaya. Flyhalf Tina Akello converted two of the three tries.
The Rugby Cranes on the other hand bounced back from a narrow Elgon Cup defeat in Kisumu. Joseph Aredo reopened his try-scoring account for Uganda as Liam Walker and captain Ivan Magomu redeemed themselves off the kicking tee.
In the second tests, the Lady Rugby Cranes were no match for Tunisia as they lost by 53-13 points but the Rugby Cranes put some daylight between them and their hosts by 28-13.
Consequently, the Lady Rugby Cranes dropped while the Rugby Cranes gained places on the World Rugby Rankings.
Tunisia will tour Uganda in October-November 2024 for the second edition of this bilateral series.
