Another Sevens World Cup bid went up in flames as the Rugby Cranes crashed out of the Africa Zone qualifiers in Tunisia early this month. As Uganda Fifteens rugby rose from strength to strength, culminating with victory in the CAR Africa Cup, the standards in the Sevens was in a downward spiral.
Was this a result of the rugby governing body URU giving more attention to Fifteens rugby over Seven’s rugby?
In a last minute desperate bid to qualify for the 2009 Dubai Sevens World Cup, URU secured the services of South African Technical adviser Norman Mbiko two weeks before the qualifiers.
The national team only pitched camp a month to the tournament, and , an embarrassing Plate finish in the Nakuru Sevens circuit signalled worse was to come.
In desperation, coach John Musoke went for experience, selecting senior players as the back bone of the team. To be fair to the players, they put up a brave effort winning three games and loosing two as they crashed out to their better prepared opponents.
Sevens rugby is a very physically demanding sport and requires the highest levels of fitness and conditioning. Top seeds Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tunisia begun their preparations over a year ago.
Kenya for example, have a team that has been largely intact for the last four years, competes around the world annually and has been to two World Cups before. The team is sponsored by Virgin Atlantic with each player earning $300 per day when on tour.
In off season, the players have three training sessions a week -- two field and one gym session closely monitored by a strength and conditioning coach!
They also have a qualified nutritionist to monitor the players’ diet.
For the Rugby Cranes to start training a month before the tournament against that quality of preparation and highly motivated opponents, was asking a little too much from the players.
It is evident as has been the case from yester years, that the organisation and planning for the national team is inadequate.
Uganda badly needed this qualification to revitalise interest in the Sevens game.
URU must now brainstorm and come out with a strategic plan on how the game will be developed. The first challenge is keeping the national team cohesive and competitive throughout the year.
As things stand the only international competition Uganda is invited to is the Safari Sevens but there are still several other tournaments on the continent that URU can enter. This will supplement the four legs of the UTL Sevens circuit.
The South Africa rugby body SARU have a mutual understanding with URU that can lead to Uganda getting more Sevens exposure besides providing technical help in training local Sevens coaches.
Over the next few years, URU should, in partnership with one of their leading sponsors, develop a very competitive local and international annual Sevens calendar that can attract foreign competition.
URU must be commended for developing the sport to high levels without any government help, but in the same breadth, they have set very high management standards by which they will be judged.
The structures from schools to clubs are in place and all URU needs now is more technical assistance, funding and international exposure. If 80% of these targets can be achieved - and preparations must start now - Uganda will qualify for the 2012 Sevens World Cup.
Train hard, win easy.
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