Lady Rugby Cranes making forward Steps

South Africa continued its stranglehold on the Rugby Women’s Africa Cup (RAC), after they bagged yet another title ahead of Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar, the other three teams in the tournament.

It was South Africa’s fifth championship since the tournament’s inception in 2019. Perhaps, had it not been for Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021, South Africa would have had more titles. However, while South Africa’s dominance has been a given, Uganda has had to sit back in admiration.

Yet, for the second successive tournament, they have finished with a bronze medal, and continue to make impressive strides. In 2019, when Uganda first competed in the Women’s RAC, they finished fourth having suffered some crushing defeats.

They lost 7-89 to South Africa; 5-37 to Kenya and drew 15 all with Madagascar. But since their return to this stage last year, the Lady Rugby Cranes have proved competitive. When they travelled to Madagascar for the fifth edition of the RAC in 2025, they started with a throwback from 2019 against South Africa.

But that time, unlike before, they lost 7-62 to South Africa. They reduced the losing deficit by 27 points, before they faced Kenya in another 0-47 fruitless battle. It seemed like the team had not learned much from their previous mistakes, yet eventually, showed character against the hosts Madagascar by edging their face-off 24-20.

There was a happy feeling that gripped the camp at the time since they were not last anymore.

“We have got to give credit to coach Charles Onen, who handled the team then. It was evident he had prepared the players well to overcome the hurdle that had made them the whipping girls,” coach Muhammad Athiyo said.

Athiyo, who took over from Onen recently added that the team has made major strides over time now. Being familiar with high level competitions has enabled the players release the fear they had for teams like South Africa and Kenya, particularly.

They has geared them on, to give punch for punch in some respects. In the recent RAC, as Athiyo noted, to highlight his team’s progression, they were able to score three tries against South Africa. Although they eventually lost the game against South Africa 20-47, Athiyo commended his team’s show of character, exhibited in reducing their losing deficit from over 50 points to 27 now.

That is not to downplay the 10-43 loss to Kenya in their opener. Athiyo said that as a team, they still need to work on their concentration levels to avoid the lapses that proved costly throughout the tournament.

He added that they now know exactly what must be worked on to get better for the next engagement. Considering that the Lady Rugby Cranes were able to leave Madagascar for dead this time, 46-12 is a major milestone for the team’s overall focus on ensuring that they capitalize and make every step made to count.

At this time last year, Onen mentioned how much the team struggled on the front row. The lack of props was a major handicap. Yet, this time, the team even had the luxury of leaving two of the six props they had in the camp behind.

But more significantly, Athiyo said that women’s rugby can only continue to grow provided they get more exposure.

In fact, Athiyo could not run away from the fact that unlike last year when Onen could only have a training camp for less than a month, this time, Uganda Rugby Union ensured that the players started training in March. There is no getting the foot off the pedal now, according to Athiyo, as attention now shifts to the Elgon Cup against Kenya later this year.

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