Rugby Cranes humbled by Namibia
Jul 22, 2017
Namibia moved to 20 points while the Cranes, who came into the game in third place stayed on 11 points
Rugby Africa Gold Cup
Uganda 24 Namibia 48
The Rugby Cranes slumped to their first defeat in the Rugby Africa Gold Cup after succumbing to a 48-24 thrashing by Namibia on Saturday at Legends.
The Cranes were guilty of a string of errors that their visitors quickly converted into points but this was a well-deserved victory for the Gold Cup table leaders, who once again collected maximum points.
Namibia moved to 20 points while the Cranes, who came into the game in third place stayed on 11 points and, with one game left to play, cannot win the trophy. Namibia, the three-time reigning champions, only need to beat Kenya next week to retain the trophy.
Uganda host Zimbabwe in two weeks and will need a better performance that what they managed in today's early kick-off, that was held up by the sudden arrival of the speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga, whose chopper landed on the pitch at the exact time the game was officially meant to start.
Namibia opened the scoring with a penalty but Uganda quickly bounced back with a try from Asuman Mugerwa, which Phillip Wokorach duly converted to give the hosts a 7-3 lead.
It didn't last long as the Welwitschias soon took the lead with a try and conversion. Wokorach scored a penalty to level matters at 10-10. After that, the class and precision of the Namibians took over.
"We failed to convert our chances and in this game, you don't get many of those against the good teams," said Cranes coach John Duncan.
Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga arrives for the game
"But I believe in this team and we will go back to the drawing board on Monday and work hard."