Uganda Lady Cranes is on facebook

Catch up with us on our facebook group 'Uganda Lady Cranes' for all the latest news, video clips and profiles of Uganda's most successful sports team as well as general information and news on women's rugby in Uganda.

Some pictures of the opening ceremony and closing dinner

First 2 pictures are performances at the opening ceremony.

Last 2 pictures are of Lady Cranes players (in black and yellow) with players from various men's and women's teams at the closing dinner.

Some pictures of us on board Emirates

First picture: me (Helen)

Second picture: Jero and I (Helen) cutting our cake from the Emirates crew

Third picture: Charlotte, Agnes, Prossy

Fourth picture: Brenda

Some Lady Cranes pictures from Dubai

First picture is of Prossy after we threw her into the Atlantis pool: it was her 25th birthday.

Second picture is us at the opening ceremony. top from left: Racheal, Harriet, Charlotte, Aalliya, Winnie. bottom from left: Christine, Helen.

Third picture is Dr Connie, Jaki and Charlotte.

Fourth picture is us on day 2. top from left: Agnes, Aalliya, Rosenburg, Harriet. bottom from left: Charlotte, Racheal, Helen, Winnie, Christine, Prossy, Justine.

The end

Our journey has finally come to an end so I can get my social life back … for now.

This is my last post. Thank you for following us on our flight to the world cup. It has been an eventful trip and it was all worth it.

I have not yet uploaded pictures from the world cup but I will do that as soon as I get hold of them - most likely next week.

Cheers.

Support

We eventually got government support (i guess that it was better late than never but government really should have stepped in much earlier). The Minister of Education of Sports travelled to Dubai and gave us a pep talk at the beginning of the tournament. He was also on hand to cheer us on during our games. We each got a small monetary reward ($100 to be exact) from the government for having represented Uganda at the world cup. As much as we appreciate the support (albeit delayed) from the government it was only a drop in the ocean: it would be great if the government started to support women’s rugby (and other minority sports) especially when they are on duty for the country.

It’s amazing how much support we drummed up and it really boosted the team. We met lots of people in Dubai who did not know that Ugandans played rugby and others still who did not know where to find Uganda on the world map. Nevertheless they were excited to see us play and supported us from our first game up until our last. It is hard to find words that can capture our appreciation for all the support we got but I will try.

Thank you everyone who supported us and wished us well: your messages of support kept us going. To those who shouted themselves hoarse from the side and those who came to talk to us after our games – you helped us keep our heads up. ICEMARK – a huge thank you for your sponsorship: you really pulled out all the stops for us. Without the support of ICEMARK women's rugby in Uganda would not have developed to where it is now. Thanks also to the Uganda Rugby Union (URU) and the Uganda Women’s Rugby Association (UWRA) for all your tireless efforts to make sure things went smoothly. To the Lady Cranes 7’s management team and all the Lady Cranes players you gave your all and I thank you for that. We went, we played and we were conquered but we have not been humbled and we will fight back. We have 4 years to prepare …

Lessons learned

There is no substitute for experience. We needed to have had build up tournaments before we travelled to Dubai in order to get a feel of other teams, to develop mental toughness and to sort out anything that did not look right. During the world cup, we got feedback from various parties (spectators, coaches & players from other teams) and they all said that we should have won against Italy and Brazil. Against South Africa we were handling them well but let ourselves down with unnecessary errors that the South Africans capitalised on. On the positive side they said that we were a good team and we played better rugby than they had expected but we need to play more games against top sides to get exposure and build confidence. That is the only way that we can develop.

We had set a high target for ourselves (a top 8 finish) which we did not achieve. How do we feel ? Disappointed. Yes, we have come further than any other Ugandan sport but we had hoped to make a bigger impact and we know we could have performed better. However, all is not lost: we have learned valuable lessons and will use this experience to improve our women’s rugby in Uganda. In all, this world cup was a learning curve (a very steep one at that) for us all and we come away knowing that we played against the best and it is possible for us to perform better than we did this time around.

Brazil

This was the bowl quarter finals and our last chance. I sat and watched the Lady Cranes versus Brazil game from the bench as I had injured my knee as well as twisted my ankle during Friday's games. Once again we lost a game that we should have won. It was tough going as we played almost half the game with 6 people. In the first half Christine Kiziti got a yellow card for a high tackle and in the second half Brenda Kayiyi twisted her knee and had to come off. We had used up all our subs so had to finish the remainder of the game (3 minutes) with 6 players. Brazil scored one try in each half while Justine Bayigga scored a try and Racheal Kakaire added the extras such that the final score was 12 – 07.

Italy

The game against Italy was our easiest game but we did not seem to get our rhythm the way we had against South Africa. We became careless in defence and conceded 2 tries while our attack was rather desparate. We scored a try through Justine Bayigga that was converted by Racheal Kakaire but although we put the Italians under pressure the all important try did not materialise. We lost 12 - 07 and booked a date with Brazil (number 3 from pool C) in the bowl quarters.

That's how our day will start today. Wish us luck.

Cheerio.

South Africa

We played South Africa on pitch 1. The crowd was really huge and amazingly it was supporting us. I think that was the most painful game we have ever played. We played so well and dominated possession in the first 5 minutes but we were somehow unable to score. We were playing good rugby but the South Africans capitalised on our errors and scored 4 tries: the final score was 26 - 00. Losing that game was devastating. We could have won it but we did not. I think that was the worst moment of my rugby life. Having lost 2 games we were now out of contention for the top 8.