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At the end of last week, I travelled to Mbarara district in Western Uganda where I have been for the past 6 days. The primary objective of this journey was to celebrate my 25th birthday with my family back at home who I hadn’t seen for almost a year.
But as you probably already know, I have become so obsessed with rugby that I couldn’t return to the capital without visiting the rugby grounds of the now Mbarara City – Ntare School pitch in Kakyeka.
That’s where my rugby story started in 2009 when I joined the school. And I have never looked back. But that’s a story for another day.
Yesterday evening, I joined the boys living in Mbarara for their usual midweek session. Exactly 4 turned up and all they did was catch up with life, and pass the ball around until the cows went home, literally.
Which led me to think, is there any rugby going on outside Kampala?
Judging from what I saw at Kakyeka yesterday, there is not any structured rugby activity going on in Mbarara.
Away from Ankole region, we saw the emergence of a new rugby club in the Tooro region, and in the Acholi region, Heathens star Joseph Oyet has been active with a rising rugby academy. Further East (past Jinja that is now a strong rugby district), the situation is similar to that where the sun sets.
Early this year, we saw the formation of regional associations and the election of regional development officers (paid by URU) that were tasked with spearheading development of rugby in their respective regions. Which, to me, was a good move to decentralise the administration of rugby from Lugogo. But we were yet to see the ball rolling in the regions before everything came to an unexpected halt.
I spoke to Vian Matsiko, who is the Upcountry representative on the Uganda Rugby Union executive committee.
Matsiko says, “There is no official rugby going on as far as URU is concerned. Following the conditions set by the government when they reopened sports, we couldn’t afford the costs of having any rugby.”
He notes that URU called off events they had in plan like regional club sevens series, the promotional playoffs to the top tier leagues, age grade, and schools rugby activities.
The suspension of sports countrywide by the government of Uganda has blown the air from the sails of the little that rugby had started doing upcountry.
However, looking forward, Matsiko says URU is still in search of a sustainable plan for the return-to-play and to resume its rugby development programs.
“We have a pathway in our strategy that shows our direction for the development of rugby upcountry. Our basic tool is the Get Into Rugby that targets 4000 new rugby players, especially students and schools. With the RDOs and regional associations, we shall resume as soon as we can next year,” Matsiko said.
Admittedly, the initial phase of the upcountry regional programs had been slow. And I believe it will most likely be a fresh start when they resume because there is a need to adjust how the operations were being done.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to paralyse sports in the country, the Ugandan rugby fraternity, fans and players alike, cannot wait for the day when rugby will return.
Most importantly for me, I look forward to seeing and hearing of rugby far and beyond Kampala.
Thanks for reading the Kawowo Rugby Switch. I would like to hear from you about the status of rugby in your upcountry regions. Let’s have a chat via email on ernest@kawowo.com or by directly replying this email.
