After winning the 2016 Africa Rugby Sevens Championship in Nairobi, anything less than victory will look like failure for the Uganda Rugby Cranes this year.
Uganda will host this year's edition at Legends Rugby Club and confidence is the only thing blowing out of Tolbert Onyango's charges. Onyango believes Uganda has every reason to believe that they can qualify for the 2018 Rugby Sevens World Cup in San Francisco. “We have to win to go to the world cup and we shall give it the best shot," Onyango revealed at the tournament launch Tuesday morning.
The Africa Rugby Sevens Championship will be held October 6-7 in Kampala with 12 nations expected to grace the occasion. Having won the tournament last year, the hosts will attract more attention from the rest of the teams at the competition. “The boys have tested the international stage and they should be hungry for more when the Africa Cup starts," the Kenyan born tactician said.
Uganda will be seed one at the tournament. Last year's losing finalists Namibia and 2015 losing finalists Zimbabwe are some of the tough challengers expected to give Uganda a run for their money. Tunisia, Zambia, Botswana, Madagascar, Senegal, Morocco and Ghana are the other sides. The Cranes will start their campaign wuth a trip to Munich, Germany where they will take part in the Oktoberfest 7s at the end of this month.
Rugby Cranes’ Sevens team
Ramadhan Govule, Eric Kasiita (captain), Desire Ayera, Adrian Kasiito, James Ijongat, Michael Wokorach, Phillip Wokorach (Assistant Captain), James Odong, Timothy Kisiiga, Pius Ogena, Brian Kikaawa and Fred Odur