The National 7s Series kicked off in Jinja with the Stone City 7s. Walukuba Barbarians and Nile Rapids emerged champions.
The two Jinja sides went unbeaten on Day 1 and Day 2 of the tournament, with both teams winning all their pool and knockout games.
The Nile Rapids defeated new entrants the Ewes 17-12 in the semifinal to book a date with the defending champions, the Thunderbirds, in the final.
The women’s final was tightly contested, with the Nile Rapids going ahead first with a converted try. Thereafter, they held on to withstand the barrage of attacks from the Thunderbirds for most of the second half, only letting in a single try that wasn’t converted by Grace Nabaggala.
The Walukuba Barbarians, on the other hand, almost had a smooth journey through the pool phase and held off a stubborn Jinja Hippos side whose two tries from Hassan Gidudu and Felix Oyet caught the Barbarians off guard.
The defending National 7s series champions recovered to win 15-12, proceeding to batter every opponent until the final.
Against the Black Pirates in the semifinals, the Barbarians took a comfortable 21-00 lead, but were let down by discipline as they received a yellow card. Pirates capitalised on this and scored two tries to end the game 21-10.
In the final, Walukuba went behind to Buffaloes thanks to brilliant tries from Daniels Otim and Aaron Tukei, but Yasin Waiswa’s conversion attempts went wide.
After the break, Walukuba responded with a try of their own through playmaker Gift Wokorach to claw back 5 points in the game. Walukuba then turned defence into attack and scored a try through Ivan Bulima, which was converted by Wokorach to give Walukuba a slim 2-point lead. The final ended 12-0 for the Jinja side.
The Walukuba Barbarians and Nile Rapids are the first circuit winners of the 2026 National 7s series, with 5 more circuits to be played.