Whereas the Uganda Rugby Championship has been very competitive at the top, the teams at the bottom of the table seem to have accepted their fate.
The beauty about this championship is that at the end of Game Week 11, it is for the taking for any of the Top 8 sides. But therein lies the flaw as well. Any of the Bottom 4 sides is a relegation candidate, hence diminishing the incentive to compete in the regular season. The Elgon Wolves lost all their regular-season games last season and put all their hopes in the playoffs, but were edged out by the Warriors.
For the Warriors, that little dance with relegation has become all too familiar. Since the restructuring of the league, they have finished in the Bottom 4, while for the Hippos and Rhinos, this is a new experience. The Kakira Simbas, in their maiden top-flight season, find themselves getting off to a poor start, losing all their 6 games played so far.
With five games to go, these four teams shall be hoping to turn things around and pick up some form to drive them through the relegation playoffs, or even overtake the Impis and Walukuba Barbarians, who only have a meagre 6-point buffer.
The Kakira Simbas are still a project in progress and were expected to do a little bit better than they are performing now, but it seems Coach Saidi Atibu’s side is having a rude awakening in the big boys’ league. Additionally, Kakira’s new signings like Brighton Bakasa and John Eceru are yet to show up to the party to inspire the Simbas to their first win of the season.
If it all ends like this, the Hippos and Rhinos have the tools to dig themselves out of this pit they find themselves in, but the same can’t be said of the Simbas and Warriors.