New year – Week 1

Saturday 3rd January: the New Year saw Yogi hobbling back onto the pitch to test her ankle and Joan (boda boda) back from her neck injury while Hadijah rejoined the team after taking time off last year to have a baby. Well, we started the New Year with a bleep test. Coaches wanted to see what we had been up to since we broke off for Christmas. The cut off had been set to 14 for the backs, 13 for the hookers and scrumhalves and 12 for the props, or something like that. Bottom line, the coaches had high standards for us. Hmmh that Christmas break did us all in: we all failed so now we have to work extra hard to get there.

After the bleep test, Mutaks took us through ball handling for 1 hour then he called it a day.


Monday 5th January: we started the session with ball handling then Mutaks and Soggy made us do circuit runs (sprints) with a 30 second break after each run and a 3 minute rest after each set. I lost count of the sets along the way but I enjoyed the runs all the same. I wouldn’t mind a whole session of them though I speak for myself. Most of the team seems to prefer the gym whereas I loathe the gym. If it weren’t for this world cup I wouldn’t go anywhere near it.

Fitness done, we went to (opposed) game plan for lineouts. Girls were rather rusty so it was rather messy. Not all that bad though. We just need to re-adjust.


Wednesday 7th January: once again we started with ball handling skills then back to game plan. Line outs again. Looking loads better and we had fun too. Brenda gave Aggie a massive hand off. It was funny to see because Brenda is really short and Aggie is quite tall so up Aggie went in the air (her feet actually left the ground) and down she came again.


Friday 9th January: Soggy took the forwards away to work on scrum downs and the backs were left with Kasasa to sort out moves off scrums. We linked up with the forwards towards the end of the session and went through game plan from scrums. It was great. Firstly, things just clicked and we did our moves almost to perfection. Secondly, Justine made only 2 knock-ons the entire session and used that lethal pace of hers effectively. She crowned off her fine night when she executed that seamless step of hers that left me totally flat-footed. It was hard not to appreciate even if I looked like a fool. Nice way to end the week.

The squad in training:
Forwards: Christine Kizito, Aalliya Adania, Josephine Namayega, Claire Anena, Brenda Kayiyi, and Fortunate Irankunda.
Backs: Me (Helen Buteme), Prossy Nakakande, Justine Bayiga, Charlotte Mudooola, Hadijah Namuyanja, Joan Andika, Agnes Nantongo, Rachel Kakaire, Harriet Kayonjo, Rosenburg Kanyunyuzi, and Winnie Atyang.


Saturday 10th January: we started at 1pm. Mutaks and Soggy took us through ball handling and contact skills for one hour. It was so damn hot and the ground was baked dry. It was like concrete with tufts of grass sticking out of it. Painful.

We were given a 20 minute break after which we were split into 2 teams and we played two games. Soggy surprised Aggie and Prossy by switching them from the back line to the forwards. Aggie was told to prop and Prossy to hook. Luckily in 7’s it’s not that hard to switch from the backs to the forwards – they did quite a good job.
After the games, the dreaded ice bath re-surfaced. I’ve been exempted from it on medical grounds so I can watch the drama from the sidelines with dry eyes and a smile on my face. Surprisingly Brenda and Kayonjo got in for their 3 minutes of torture with hardly a squeak. Charlotte on the other hand screamed the entire 3 minutes and afterwards toppled out of the icebath cursing but no tears. That’s a step up for her.