Rugby Sevens World Cup
Championship Cup Qualifying Round
Samoa 45-07 Uganda
AT&T Park, USA
Referee: Craig Evans
SAN FRANCISCO – Uganda was handed a rough welcome to the Sevens Rugby World Cup on Saturday morning by Samoa.
The African champions were demolished 45-07 by the Manu at the AT&T stadium, on the day that they (Uganda) made their maiden bow at the global show piece event.
Tolbert Onyango’s men could barely get anything right on the night and with just a minute on the clock, Joe Perez crossed the white wash for Samoa’s first try of the game.
Soon it was raining tries for Samoa as Uganda continued to struggle in their first ever Rugby Sevens world cup match, trailing 19-07 at half time despite Micheal Wokorach who was earlier sent to the sin bin for a high tackle, scoring the team’s only try accompanied by Philip Wokorach’s conversion on 10 minutes.
Belgium Tuatagaloa, Tofatuimoana Solia, Laaloi Leilual, Alamanda Motuga (2) and Neria Fomai all scored trys for Gordon_Tietjens’s men.
30 year old Alatasi Tupou scored four of his attempted six conversions while Murphy Paulo also got in on the act with one of his own.
The loss sent Uganda out of main cup contention and will now compete in the bowl. In the bowl, they will take on Zimbabwe on Saturday at the same arena for a place in the semi-finals.
For Samoa, they move on to the a quarter final date with Wales in the Challenge trophy.
Uganda’s starting seven vs Samoa:
Micheal Wokorach, Solomon Okia, Byron Oketayot, Aaron Ofoyrwoth, James Odong, Timothy Kisiga and Philip Wokorach.
