The Uganda men’s 7s national team is in Cape Town, South Africa for the opening round of the 2025 World Rugby HSBC 7s Series with a rookie-laden squad.
Six of the twelve players — Patrick Okello, Malcolm Okello, Daniel Otim, Allan Karuhanga, Arnold Ocen and Kamiza Jones — will make their 7s Challenger Series debut at the Athlone Stadium on March 1-2 this weekend. Of the six, Karuhanga and Kamiza will be making their first-ever international appearance with Uganda 7s.
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Head coach Tolbert “Tolly” Onyango urged the new lads to “introduce themselves to the world” and to “have some fun.” Onyango made the comments while speaking to Kawowo Sports at the squad’s flag-off ceremony on Friday afternoon last week.
“It presents an opportunity for the young boys to go and introduce themselves to the world and have some fun. It’s going to be a tough tournament; a baptism of fire, first-time jitters are going to happen. But once we get that first game first minute out of the way, then we should be fine,” Onyango said.
Uganda will face Brazil and Samoa in Pool C of the first round on Saturday.
The twelve players in Cape Town, plus the four non-travelling reserves, are Uganda’s final squad for the full 7s Challenger Series this year.
Despite having an inexperienced squad, Coach Tolly is excited and optimistic about the future of the Uganda men’s 7s program.
“We are excited about the prospects of this team and even just in terms of building capacity. So we are going to be having twelve new players in addition to the older players. It shows good prospects for the future of the sevens code.
“It’s always a tough start when you’re bringing in new recruits. We’ve got to condition them to be able to take collisions at the high level and match up the intensity. It’s going to take some time but there’s quite some bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”