The Uganda Rugby Cranes find themselves in hot water after losing 24-12 to the Atlas Lions of Morocco in the 5th Place Semifinal of the Rugby Africa Cup.
The Moroccans made their intentions known in the first 10 minutes of the game the game, going on attack, losing the ball forward in Uganda’s 5 but dominated the resultant scrum, leading to a penalty and quick tap from the scrumhalf in red, Theo Bachiri, who simply just dived over.
That converted try was the beginning of Uganda’s woes. A second try in similar fashion, this time off a scrum freekick, on Uganda’s own feed, led to another quick tap that resulted in a try by Yascine Maamry, which was converted by Naoufal El Kadri once again to bring the score to 14-nil for the Moroccans.
By the end of the first half, Uganda was 14 points behind, having lost 3 of their 8 line outs, ceded possession off the scrum twice, and had 5 major handling errors in good attacking positions. This wasn’t even the tip of the iceberg of Uganda’s disastrous display in the first half.
Decisions! Bad Decision Galore…
In the later stages of the first half, the Ugandans camped in the Moroccan 22 to no result. In the first real attack, Uganda got a penalty, kicked for a line out, which they won, then put on only 4 phases in the Morocco 5-meter area. Without advantage and under no pressure at all, scrumhalf Conrad Wanya decided to play the ball to William Nkore at 10, who scrambled with the ball but it went backwards. Attack? dead!
From a similar position, this time the boys in black opted for a scrum, got a scrum penalty and opted for another scrum. This was repeated once again, but on the second. And third time’s, the previously 7-man scrum of Morocco had come back to its full complement. In total, 5 kickable penalties went begging in the first half, as the Ugandans opted for the 5 instead of the 3, and ended up leaving with nothing.
Captain Byron Oketayot finally showed a grain of decisiveness when he called on the bench to bring on another scrumhalf after he felt like Wanyama had run his course. Previously, the skipper would be seen looking to fellow veterans of the team in Philip Wokorach and Joseph Aredo before he made decisions. This came a little too late as there was nothing left to salvage from the game.
Finally, in the 61st minute, the Ugandans decided to play some rugby. They got two penalties in the Moroccan 5, called for scrums twice and finally it paid off as Aaron Ofoyrwoth picked the ball from the base, fed it to Philip Wokorach who scored Uganda’s first try of the game to bring the score to 19-05 for the Atlas Lions.
The Ugandans added another try from Wokorach, but it is the Moroccans that asserted their dominance by scoring two tries in the corner, with the last try being contested by the Ugandan players, claiming foul play by the ball carrier.
Uganda now faces Ivory Coast in a decider of who stays in the elite division and who gets relegated.