The Nile Special 7s season heads to Jinja this weekend for the Kyabazinga Sevens at Bugembe stadium. At the time of this stop, the battle for women’s honours is quite fierce.
The Thunderbirds, who are table leaders with 77 points, have the Avengers breathing down their necks on 75 points with three more stops (circuits) to play.
In the already completed four stops, including the one last weekend at the King’s Park Arena in Bweyogerere, there have been four different winners: Thunderbirds, Avengers, Nile Rapids and most recently, Black Pearls.
Last year, the Avengers were quite dominant, winning four of the seven stops, and made it to six of the seven finals. But can they defend their title? Avengers have no Peace Lekuru, who turned professional recently.
And owing to how dominant she was then, with back-to-back female rugby player of the year national awards, Avengers seem weakened. However, Namukwaya said: “I know how good Lekuru was for our team. But we have been in two finals of the four circuits so far.”
In addition, Namukwaya, who was team captain last year noted that because of the strong team unit, Lekuru missed three of the seven stops last year, yet the Avengers remained indomitable. This time, Namukwaya reasoned that the women’s 7s championship is a lot tougher.
“Teams have greatly improved. You look at the Walukuba Titans, and their pace is unbelievable. The Thunderbirds have played a lot of games now as a team, which has made them balanced. The Black Pearls have experience in their ranks, while a team like Nile Rapids play with such good structure in terms of ball circulation,” Namukwaya explained.
Nevertheless, Namukwaya believes in her team to keep plugging away.
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