Africa Rugby Men’s Sevens 2018
13th-14th October
Monastir, Tunisia
MONASTIR, TUNISIA – Uganda failed to defend their Africa Men’s sevens title in Tunisia after losing their semi final match up with eventual champions Zimbabwe.
After cruising through the group stages with two wins from as many games, Tolbert Onyango’s side took care of the host 14-10 in the last eight but blew a 19 point lead to lose 24-19 in extra time to the South African Nation.
In the last four, Captain Michael Wokorach put the Cranes on their way with a try inside the first minute before Isaac Mussanganzira and Ian Munyani added two more. With Philip Wokorach converting two of the three conversions, Uganda went into half time leading 19-0.
However, Aaron Ofoyrwoth was sent off at the start of the second half to reduce Uganda to six men which played into Zimbabwe’s favour as they dominated play and by the sound of the final buzzer, the scores were level at 19 all meaning that the game had to go into extra time to determine the winner.
Zimbabwe made no mistake by posting the first try in the extra period to set up a date in the final with Kenya who had earlier defeated Madagascar 36-05.
Zimbabwe went on and defeated Kenya 17-5 to win the cup.This is Zimbabwe’s third truimph at the tournament having won it in 2000 and 2012.
In the third place playoff game, the Cranes also required extra time to defeat Madagascar 24-19. A couple of converted tries from Philip Wokorach, and a late late try from Justin Kimono to level the game at 19-all took the game to extra time and Adrian Kasito scored the game winning try against a determined Madagascar side.
Zimbabwe and Uganda qualified for World Sevens Series qualifying tournament for being the top two non-core teams in 2018 from the African region.
The two sides will compete at 2019 Hong Kong Sevens in April which acts as 2019/20 World Series qualifier. The tournament will bring together top two nations from each region with the sole winner of the competition set to become a core team for 2019/20 World Sevens Series.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe will be the 16th team at Dubai and Cape Town 7s legs of the 2018/19 World Sevens Series for being the top ranked side in on the continent.
Uganda’s performance at the 2018 Africa Men’s Sevens:
Group B
-Uganda 45-00 Ghana
-Uganda 31-00 Senegal
Quarter Finals:
-Uganda 14-10 Tunisia
Semi Fianls:
-Uganda 19-24 Zimbabwe
Third Place:
-Madagascar 19-24 Uganda
