The news of Ivan Magomu’s appointment as the new Uganda Rugby Cranes captain was received with a great deal of affirmation and celebratory messages from the rugby fraternity. Talk of a fulfilled destiny from the past and amazing prospects for the future – for himself and Ugandan rugby.
And this Saturday afternoon, when Magomu runs onto the Kyadondo Rugby Club turf ahead of his fellow national servicemen for the Rugby Africa Cup opening match against Ghana, two gentlemen will be smiling in pride at their homes in admiration of the lad. That is, Mr Mutebi Ronald and Valence Bizimana, his high school rugby tutors when his star was beginning to shine.
Mutebi Ronald was a teacher of Technical Drawing at St Mary’s College, Kisubi (SMACK) but he also served as the rugby patron and coach at the great Ivy League school along Entebbe Road. Valence Bizimana was a teacher of French at Namilyango College (Ngo) and a patron of the historic college’s rugby team.
Mutebi and Bizimana were nothing short of excited to hear the news. Magomu is a player they had seen from the first time he touched a rugby ball over a decade ago and has grown to be an exceptional talent.
“I got to know (the news) on Tuesday and I was excited for him. Ivan is my son, he calls me Papa, Mutebi said to Kawowo Sports. “He is a born leader and from the time I identified him as a player in Senior One, I could see he was a good leader,” he added.
Mutebi was the first individual to identify Magomu’s brilliance and talent that he felt had the making of a great rugby player. Magomu was originally a footballer when he was admitted to the predominantly rugby school and it is in his first year at the school while playing football one evening that he caught Mutebi’s attention.
A few years later, Magomu was under Bizimana’s care at Namilyango – a similarly great rugby school located along the Kampala-Jinja highway but a fierce rival to the first – where he went to study his A’Levels.
“It is a good move to make him captain, considering he is one of the most experienced players on that team. However, one area where I was sceptical is when I saw he was going to captain his former captains,” Bizimana said to Kawowo Sports. “But I believe he has a good relationship with them and they will guide him to be a better captain.”
From the time Magomu started playing rugby at SMACK until he finished high school at Ngo, Magomu won everything there was to win at that stage. The national schools league trophies with both schools and with Hana Mixed (where he played with Philip Wokorach), East African Games rugby trophy with Hana Mixed and a couple of sevens trophies.
But that was not all, Magomu was already being groomed by Mutebi and Bizimana to be a leader. In his Senior Three at SMACK in 2009, Magomu was the U16 school team’s vice-captain and in his final year at Ngo in 2012 was the college’s senior team captain. When Uganda hosted the CAR U19 Tier 1B championship that same year, Magomu served as vice-captain under Alhajj Manano and he got the opportunity to lead the team when Manano was ruled out due to injury.
However, Magomu’s rugby career has not been short of controversy and turbulence. When his personality combined with the energy of youth, Magomu was like a ticking timebomb, especially on the pitch.
“The young man is double-edged, temperamental if I could say. He has a very good side and a bad side. I remember those days at Namilyango specifically when we played (against) Hana Mixed. Magomu got a red card and he rallied his teammates to leave the pitch. But he has since matured and you can see with how he carries himself now,” Bizimana said.
“As a young man, he made a couple of mistakes. You remember that phase of cards in his early club days. But those days are long gone behind him,” Mutebi recalled. He says that the turning point can be credited to Magomu’s club who realised that he needed guidance from them and people like himself.
Magomu believes that it was a stage in his career that shaped the player he is currently.
“I honestly believe I was still a young man rising through the ranks… and you know, then, you have a lot of adrenaline rushing through your head. I had those indiscipline issues and then it reached a point and I matured. I got a great deal of counselling and guidance from my seniors. I have to give credit to Pirates because they were patient with me, and helped me go through it well,” he said.
When the whistle is blown for Uganda Rugby Cranes to begin their campaign for a maiden appearance at the Rugby World Cup, Magomu will have officially begun his tenure as the captain of a new generation of the Rugby Cranes.
Magomu may not be certain about where this role and responsibility will take him as an individual but his tutors believe he is destined for greatness.
“His career has reached the peak and he is now a complete material. If we had scouts, he would be one of the top players we send to Europe and South Africa,” Bizimana said.
“Ivan is a man of the lights. Give him attention and he will do magic. He is a player who performs best when the limelight is on him. I am very sure this responsibility will bring out the best in him,” Mutebi re-affirms.
Magomu will not be alone. He has the dependable former Rugby Cranes captain Brian Odongo and halfback pair Heathens captain Paul Epillo as his vice-captains.
- Rugby Africa Cup 2021 Pool C – Kampala, Uganda
- Saturday, July 10: Uganda vs Ghana
- Sunday, July 18: Uganda vs Algeria
