After Rugby Cranes flatter to deceive, Paris must lift spirits

A day later, on August 4, tables could well be turned if Akani Simbine's single-minded obsession with the marquee sprint event carries him past USA’s Noah Lyles, easily the South African’s most formidable opponent.

Yet, amidst those individual battles, expect the team events to shine with renewed purpose through the haze at Paris 2024.

We will see team tactics surge to the fore in the distance running events, with no love lost between Uganda as well as the illustrious pair of Ethiopia and Kenya. The dynamics of the baton exchange in the sprint relays will also be remarkably eventful, if not exactly tense.

While there is something reminiscent of military precision to Team Jamaica's controlled demeanour, Team USA—never wanting in cockiness and mistakes—can only be overlooked at one's peril. 

To be clear, the conversation is not the preserve of athletics when we are talking about team sports at the Olympics. Football and rugby sevens matches at Paris 2024, for one, got underway to much fanfare on July 24.

Ideally, Ugandans should be wondering what might have been after their men and women’s rugby sevens outfits missed out on getting to the big time. 

Yet, more than anything, 15s rugby has burned itself back into the consciousness of many a Ugandan rugby fan over the past week or so.

After having seemed almost to fade from view thanks to a busy international sevens rugby calendar, the staging of the latest edition of the Rugby Africa Cup at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole has put 15s rugby back on a pedestal.

We should, however, not shy away from stating the obvious: while Ugandan sevens rugby has an embarrassment of riches; Ugandan 15s rugby has the riches of embarrassment.

Next year, Uganda will host the Rugby Africa Cup. It will be a high-stakes affair, not least because of doubling as a World Cup qualifier.

But after having yielded diminishing returns during this year’s ‘dress rehearsal’, Rugby Cranes fans have been forced to embody temperance and humility.

Those who have little tolerance for error have been shocked by their team's discipline problems and shambolic displays at the breakdown.

Even in the 25-15 scrappy win over Burkina Faso, which preceded a 22-20 loss at the hands of Zimbabwe, smoothing over the cracks proved to be elusive.

While Rugby Cranes players and backroom staff alike have vowed to work feverishly in a bid to gradually win back doubters, it remains to be seen if they possess the right mix of contrition, charm, and wit.

The team continues to be viewed with condescension, even contempt, by its own fans after training camps in Tunisia and South Africa did not spare it the embarrassment of a dim showing. 

In fact, such is the threat hiding in plain sight that some critics want more Uganda Rugby Sevens players to be brought into the World Cup qualifying picture next year. This column vehemently rejects such an intervention.

The lustre of our sevens players is not in doubt. If it were not for two of them—the irrepressible Philip Wokorach and the indefatigable Alex Aturinda—Zimbabwe would have wiped the floor with us the other day.

The temptation then to fantasise about what a Pius Ogena here or Desire Ayera there bring to the table can be quite overwhelming. Such lures must be resisted. Stoutly. Why? Opting not to separate the two variants of rugby union will inflict the damage it is expected to.

As your columnist has written before, we should be ready to endure short-term pain in the hope that it will yield long-term gains.

At any rate, the sevens team will also have its plate full next year as it looks to extend the frontiers of what is currently viewed as success—multiple African titles.

For now, though, after a topsy-turvy 2024 Rugby Africa Cup tournament, we can look forward to rallying behind our 24 representatives at Paris 2024.

It all starts today when rower Kathleen Noble goes in the single sculls heats. The curtain will then be brought down on August 11 when Stella Chesang, Mercyline Chelangat, and Rebecca Cheptegei take part in the women’s marathon final. 

After managing a four-medal haul at Tokyo 2020, two of which were the precious metal, Team Uganda will have its work cut out in Paris.

Unlike the Rugby Cranes, it will hope any strong showing at the big time is more to the audacity of its athletes than the stumble of others (à la the injuries Burkinabe players suffered during their 25-15 loss).