- Nile Special Rugby (Men) Championship 2024 – Round Three
- Result: Hippos 20-20 Heathens
Heathens were in the driving seat and well on the way to maintaining their unbeaten run against Jinja Hippos on Saturday evening at Damwaters Rugby Club. They had taken a slim but commanding 15-10 lead into half-time. Three tries to one.
During the first twenty minutes of the second half, it was a balanced contest between the two teams. No tries/points scored. But even when Heathens were reduced to ten men after a Tonny Okello yellow card, they managed to keep Hippos at bay. That quarter culminated in a Michael Wokorach solo effort try for Heathens to lead by 20-10 points.
So what happened in the final quarter of the match?
It all began with Malcolm Daniel Okello uncharacteristically missing the conversion from short range. Heathens’ poor run of kicking accuracy in the championship saw them register a zero per cent success rate from the tee (attempts by Okello and Chris Lubanga) on the day.
But the home team were not any better off the kicking tee either. Yasin Wasswa kicked at 28.6% accuracy from seven attempts from points. His penalty miss three minutes after Okello’s, also from short range, kept Hippos at an arm’s distance of two tries from Heathens.
This meant that only tries would make the difference. So both teams made multiple changes with different objectives; Heathens to bring the win home and Hippos to stage a comeback.
Crucial for Hippos was the introduction of backs Fidel Aremo and Bruno Kisule who added a sting to their attack. Aremo was at the end of a counterattack move involving Meddy Bagalana, Andrew Odhiambo, and Brighton Bakasa that resulted in a try in the corner in the seventy-third minute.
In the seventy-ninth minute, Kisule was the distributor for the try that levelled matters. He deployed Odhiambo who offloaded the ball to Bakasa to power over in the same corner.
Heathens, on the other hand, were let down by their substitutions.
If you watch both tries back, you notice a common factor. Heathens’ defence, mainly manned by their substitutes, could not contain the rampaging attack. Jordan Bongomin was drawn by a Bakasa carry and Joaquim Chisano was beaten for pace by Aremo in the first try.
And in the second try, Odhiambo, who had been on the pitch for eighty minutes, was able to free his hands despite Bongomin and Chisano’s attempts to tackle him and make the offload to Bakasa.
That try originated from a Hippos turnover at the breakdown after Faisal Gamma (Paul Epillo’s substitute) attempted to play a slow ball from the ruck.
What does the draw mean?
The draw means both Heathens and Hippos have dropped points for the first time this season. It also ended Heathens’ twelve-match winning streak since April 2023. They dropped to second place in the championship standings below Rhinos while Hippos are in fourth place.
Hippos were the happier of the two since this was the first time in their ten-year history that they picked a positive result against Heathens. They have, for the past four years, steadily closed the gap between the top three – Heathens, Kobs, and Black Pirates – in the men’s competition.
They beat KOBs in the first round, and have now salvaged a draw against Heathens in the third round. Pirates better be ready for the force coming to their backyard next weekend at Kings Park.
