At the end of the 2023 XVs season in May last year, Uganda Rugby Union (URU) forwarded a set of proposals to the Chairperson’s Round Table. The first, to expand the men’s XVs premiership and the Uganda Cup competitions, and the second, to adjust the playing formats of the two competitions mentioned above.
URU adapted those proposals with immediate effect from the start of the 2023-24 season.
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The Uganda Cup, for the first time in history, featured twenty teams and started from the pool phase before the knockouts. It concluded last month in epic style with Nile Rapids and Heathens being crowned the men’s and women’s champions respectively.
The premiership, in its thirty-third year of existence since 1999, will now be played in a Cup format. It has been played in a round-robin league format for all the years except 2004, 2005, and 2013. The 2024 season will feature twelve teams in a championship with a regular season and playoffs.
The composition of participating teams:
Last season’s participants in the XVs league; champions Pirates, Heathens, Kobs, Hippos, Buffaloes, Mongers, Walukuba, Impis, Rhinos, and would-have-been-relegated Rams, will be joined by the finalists from the national promotional playoffs – Eagles and Warriors – to form the twelve-team 2024 Nile Special Rugby Championship.
A reserve competition, comprising the dozen’s academy and development sides, will be played alongside this championship. Independent teams in the respective regions that meet the criteria for promotion will compete in their regional championships.
How the 2024 Championship will be played:
The regular season will be eleven matchdays of a single-leg round-robin competition. Teams will be ranked in the standings from first to twelfth. The top eight teams will compete in the Championship Playoff while the bottom four will compete in the Relegation Playoff.
The Championship Playoff will begin in the quarterfinals, followed by semifinals and finals. The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in two Home & Away legs after which the team with the highest aggregate points will progress to the next stage respectively. The final will be a one-off match, the winner of which will be crowned 2024 champion.
- Quarterfinal 1: Rank 1 vs Rank 8
- Quarterfinal 2: Rank 2 vs Rank 7
- Quarterfinal 3: Rank 3 vs Rank 6
- Quarterfinal 4: Rank 4 vs Rank 5
The Relegation Playoff will begin in the semifinals with the two losing semifinalists after the Home & Away legs getting relegated.
- Semifinal 1: Rank 9 vs Rank 12
- Semifinal 2: Rank 10 vs Rank 11
The two teams to be promoted will come from the final of the promotional playoff involving teams from the regions.
The new changes, according to Vice-President (Technical), Eric Butime, have been introduced to reduce the player load to meet the internationally-set standard and to allow adequate time to prepare for the national team tests.
On the other hand, the women’s competition will maintain the league format. For 2024, an all-time high seven teams will participate in the national competition.
