Credit: John Batanudde

One year after switching from a league to a cup format, Uganda Rugby Union (URU) has rebranded the men’s top-flight XVs “Championship” to “Premiership.”

The Nile Special (title sponsor) Rugby Championship has been renamed the ‘Uganda Rugby Premiership (URP)’ with immediate effect. The change also applies uniformly to the women’s Nile Special Rugby Premier League which will now be known as the ‘Uganda Women’s Rugby Premiership (UWRP)’.

This change, URU says in a press release on Thursday afternoon, is part of “a broader strategy to align the structure of our competitions.”

“This renaming and realignment of our competitions are vital steps in creating a structured, professional, and marketable rugby ecosystem in Uganda,” read the release in part.

https://twitter.com/UgandaRugby/status/1879872458494513588

Similarly, the regional rugby competitions (round-robin leagues) which feed into the now-premierships have been rebranded to ‘Championships.’ They are now designated as the Central (CRC), Eastern (ERC), Northern (NRC) and Western (WRC) Rugby Championship. And so are the Central (CWRC), Eastern (EWRC), Northern (NWRC) and Western (WWRC) Women’s Rugby Championships.

The men’s Uganda Rugby Premiership (URP) and Uganda Women’s Rugby Premiership (UWRP) kicked off last week and are already ongoing. The men’s and women’s championships are yet to commence.

Ernest Akorebirungi is a rugby reporter, presenter and commentator. Since 2019, he has covered multiple rugby tournaments locally, regionally and internationally, including the African Games and two Rugby...

Leave a comment

Please let us know what you think