Uganda’s Lady Cranes 7s started their Safari 7s campaign with a statement 50-05 win over University of Pretoria’s TUKs Women.
The Cranes opened their account through Lydia Namabiro, who scored in the left corner after receiving a beautiful offload from Susan Adong. The conversion went wide on that occasion, but on the next try, Mastula Namboozo sunk the extra two points after Namabiro finishing off Tina Akello’s assist.
Before the half-time break, Akello was once again creating try-scoring opportunities, this time releasing Adong for the try. Namboozo completed her first-half hat-trick of conversions after Grace Nabaggala won a turnover and quickly started to score next to the posts.
After the break, TUKS Women pulled back 5 points straight from the restart to bring the score to 26-05.
Uganda then immediately responded through another Akello assist to Nabaggala. Namabiro once again got on the scoreboard to complete her hat-trick after Uganda turned over TUKS’ lineout. On that occasion, Akello was once again the provider.
Coach Charles Onen then made mass substitutions, bringing in Bushira Namutebi and Latifah Tiko for their Lady Cranes 7s debut. Tiko repaid her gaffer by scoring a try on debut to bring the score to 45-05.
With time well spent, the Cranes had one more try in them after the full-time hooter. Rachael Mufuwa, another second-half substitution, showed incredible pace on the wing to score Uganda’s last try of the game. The conversion wasn’t good on that occasion, but the job was already done at that point.
Uganda’s next game shall be against the Kenya Cubs on Saturday, October 10, at 9:45 a.m.