If you were at Kyadondo Rugby club this last weekend and you are as perceptive as I am, you must have marveled at the atmosphere and the fan turn out looking fine complemented by the sun, despite competition from the soccer world cup.It was brilliant, capped off by the appearance of the Prime Minister (our sport's land?) and Lieutenant Colonel Muhoozi Kainerugaba ,who brought with him10 Million Ugx for the Rugby Cranes plus a host of special forces. Generally everything was perfect, we even had a record going for us no loss to Kenya since 2005, of course that was until the score board started ticking over for the “wrong” team by half time the Cranes had their socks knocked off trailing 8 to 18 to neighbours Kenya. A rally in the second half was killed off by Kenya’s Captain and one of the better players on the day Innocent “Namcos” Simiyu, with a pretty obvious chip and chase try that made our defense look every bit what it had been on the day, ordinary. Kenya ended the game convincing 33-25 winners despite Uganda getting an unlikely bonus point from scoring 4 tries,through wing Bishop Onen(1) and flanker Robert Seguya(3) All said and done we take a look at the 10 point program(didn’t want to go on too much about it) that we got wrong or the Kenyans got right and what needs to change going into the return leg in Nairobi, where I promise we should give the Ministry of rugby a dance lesson that will keep the 'kayumbet' as ordinary as it has always been.

1. Tactical Kicking and all Kicking

From the first whistle it was obvious the Kenyans had no intention of playing rugby in their own half. And the 2 brothers at fly-half and full back really pulled the strings fielding any kicks from Uganda and returning them with interest. Result we were penalised punished in our half more times than a phone thief in mob justice. We got a number of penalty opportunities and the ensuing attempts to find touch were pathetic, from one such kick I believe we even conceded a try and obviously lost all opportunities to get back into the game, considering 3 of our tries were from mauls and the line out was working like clock work.This aimless kicking whose trajectory is never close to touch and does not sit long enough for a Garry Owen and then there is no player chasing to get under the high ball....how would one define such a kick?Whatever it was,it was the order of the day.

2. Tackling

Our tackling was pretty much average, most of the first time tackles were missed, followed by 3 more. As to whether it is our defense that needs work or the boys were not up to the task is anyone’s guess, an old lady would have tackled much better than we saw on Saturday.Without taking too much away from the Kenyans, specifically man of the match flank Oscar Ouma, it was like they were running through green fields with feeble attempts to caress and massage more than tackle. Do we have a defense coach?Tackling comes with commitment and I do not want to question the commitment of the Cranes, but any self respecting side would after such a display.

3. Player selection

Once again this is an area that will cause hulla-balloo , but here it comes we are all coaches in our own rights. I guess, but 3 areas I believe we got wrong at the beginning was the hooker and the 8th man. Solomon Mawanda is a good player but compared to Alex Mubiru at least going by form the difference is like night and day. He was too slow over the park ambling all over the field and on one occasion totally found himself lost on the wing where he got slaughtered as the Kenyan winger another Simiyu breezed past him and it was only a scrambling ditch tackle from the full back saved the day. Having said that information coming too us is that Alex Mubiru did not even deserve to be on the team considering he has not recovered from an ankle injury.So one wonders why an injured hooker,a yet to be finished article hooker were training without cover.There was once a guy called Paul Barigye, wonder what happened?But to give Solo his credit the lineouts and scrums were solid Andrew Olweny is great guy God bless his soul but should he be debuting against Kenya in all honesty? Scott Oluoch’s introduction albeit too late showed the gulf between the two. The Kenyan Captain said one of the things that had worked for them was consistent player selection and playing, so even this business of bringing back 7s players has stopped and indeed they played like a team. A clear case of lack of team work was the last try scored by Simiyu, as the move was building up you could see the full back recovering hands on knees, the wingers were awol as well so the chip was all too obvious and when it came it stung deeper than an Arab dagger. As to whether the back 3 know each other we don’t know, although at the time to be fair quite a few substitutions had been made. But still....... Moses Soita is another fantastic player but it appears he has not yet fully recovered his fitness and he stayed on pitch too long yet he was not effective even at his strengths the line out.This means for 70% of the game we hand only one recognized line out jumper.

4. Playing in our own half

All too often the boys got excited and tried to play running rugby from deep within our half (as you must have noted by now, yes they couldn’t kick), this proved fool-hardy as the Kenyans were only too happy too tackle and contest the breakdown (what is the worst that could happen) and in many cases the ref who I will come to later made the calls in their favour. One such misguided run from our own half resulted in an intercept try, speaking of which I thought Mathias was faster than that, those that were closer, what happened????

5. The Referee

Need I say more...!!!! His calling at the breakdown I could not understand and I think this puzzled the boys and the captain more than anything. An area of management, however we need to sort this out, cause I believe the same man is calling the game in Nairobi we need to get on his right side or understand his interpretation or may be wear red.

6. Mr Murphy or should I say Murphy’s Law

There is a saying attributed to the famous Murphy that says the probability of a piece of bread falling with the buttered side facing downwards is directly proportional to the price or value of the carpet or something like that. I mean on a day when everything that could go right had gone right the fans were in numbers, we were on super sport, security(special forces in the house),Prime Minister,1st son and even the big man had recognized us and promised a state dinner, we had to go and fall flat on our faces against our least preferred opponents to do that. So just may be it was in the stars, so we live in hope the Nairobi leg will be a different ball game.

7. The traveling Kenyan fans aka The Ministry of Rugby led by the Minister Tarik Arigi

Those chaps really sorted us and when we were down they kicked us in the teeth. I think the site of a whole stand colored in red singing in weird languages greatly wore down our home advantage and might even have confused the ref ( I mean all 50-50 calls went to the Kenyans yet they normally go to the home team). So come this weekend we fight fire with fire. All the right colors and choir voices, Nairobi here we come.

8. The Backs

Someone said our backs were s#@t, I wonder why?Do we have a back's coach?We have never got an answer!!!!

9. Focus Once again I go to the Kenyans for answers.

The Kenya captain said they came to Uganda with an aim to win by 15 points so that they could climb the IRB rankings to number 35. Fortunately this did not happen and both countries retained their positions. Whether our guys went into the game with the same sort of clear focus or they went to “play like lions” is another matter. The purpose with which the Kenyans played was clear for all to see and I believe clarity of purpose goes a long way in achievement of goals (okay so now am lecturing). So the Kenyans did not meet their goal, I however doubt that they are beating themselves too much about it.

10. According the fly-half a license to roam

I don’t know whether it was taking the announcement on the common market that spilt over into rugby but certainly our boys abided by it way too much. Fly-half Nato Simiyu roamed all day untouched and did all he pleased. It was indeed a walk in the park to say the least, I don’t remember him being tackled once. Not to take away anything from him but what happened to flankers hustling the fly-half and letting him know you are on the park, exchange phone numbers at the minimum. If it was not for the way ward passing at the end I believe the punishment might have been greater. So there you have it, after Saturday a friend told me the boys had made him get back on the bottle. I thought to myself something good comes out of even the worst of circumstances. It is said former British PM Churchill said his wife drove him to drink and he did not have the courtesy to thank her. I say we will have courtesy enough to thank our boys. Come this weekend though drive us to drink for the other reason!!!