Rams battle Makerere Impis in Central League Final

The Central Uganda Rugby Championship comes to a close on Sunday, 13th April, but not without a winner.

The Makerere Impis and Rams, the two graveyard Giants that were dwarfed last season in the Uganda Rugby Premiership, found themselves towering over every other side in the second tier of Ugandan rugby this year.

While putting up astronomical figures on the scoreboard against the other central league teams, with a walkover here and there, the two teams ultimately faced off in a close 16-12 contest, in favour of the Landlords. It is now crunch time, winner takes all. Whichever team comes out on top in this fixture goes through to the national championship promotional playoff games where the top two shall automatically earn promotion to the Uganda Rugby Premiership.

Both sets of players and their coaches are cognizant of what is at stake and are therefore not taking this final lightly.

“Of course, we feel the pressure and that’s excellent because if we didn’t, then it would indicate that we don’t love what we do. Pressure is good for a young team like ours because it shall always exist at the level we want to be in the future,” Impis coach Syrus Simon Ssebuliba noted.

The Rams coach, Jude Rwakayanga, is equally aware of what such an intense game brings out in players, noting; “Being a derby, there’s always anxiety around it, but the preparations we’ve made put us in the right position. Both the experienced players and the new ones feel that anxiety, but at least we have already played Sunday’s opponent in the regular league, and we saw where we fell short and that’s what we’ve been fixing since then.”

Coach Rwakayanga isn’t the only one who has done his homework. Without divulging much, Coach Ssebuliba admits that his team has worked on a few key issues that were not performed well in the regular season game, and they have emphasized the areas where they did well.

The Rams shall rely on the experience they have within their ranks, despite possessing a relatively young squad. While Impis is in their transition season with plenty of new and young players, the Rams have worked on retaining their players and bringing in young players from their academy.

The game shall be played at the Makerere Rugby Grounds, The Graveyard, on Sunday at 4PM, alongside the women’s game between The Lady Swans and the Lady Pacers scheduled for 2PM.

The post Rams battle Makerere Impis in Central League Final appeared first on Kawowo Sports.