Onyango wants experience for Commonwealth Games
Jan 15, 2014
THE National Rugby Sevens team has been drawn against regular IRB Rugby Sevens series teams England, Australia and Sri Lanka in the fifth edition of the Rugby 7s
By Johnson Were
Pool A: New Zealand, Canada, Scotland, Nigeria
Pool B: South Africa, Kenya, Cook Islands, Trinidad and Tobago
Pool C: Samoa, Wales, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia
Pool D: England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Uganda
THE National Rugby Sevens team has been drawn against regular IRB Rugby Sevens series teams England, Australia and Sri Lanka in the fifth edition of the Rugby 7s in the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Scotland due July 23-August 3.
This has prompted team coach Tolbert Onyango to rule out naming any inexperienced player in his squad as he wants results as one way of attracting invitations for the team in the IRB Sevens series.
“We started building our sevens capacity last year in the Confederation of Africa 7s in Mombasa and I think the boys we started with have now got some experience, but I can assure you that am taking a mixture of senior players and experienced youth,” Onyango disclosed.
Uganda is in group D alongside regular IRB Sevens series teams England, Australia and then Sri Lanka in the games that kick-off July 26 and end July 27 at Ibrox Stadium.
“Actually we are waiting for the league to end and we start a training programme for the players with a separate 7s training programme and these players will not be involved in the 15s rugby at all,” Onyango added.
Onyango returns his experience to the team having coached Uganda in the 2006 Melbourne Games that saw Uganda whip Sri Lanka 24-12 in the bowl quarters before losing 29-0 to Kenya in the bowl semi-final.
Sixteen teams will compete for the gold medal and they include Uganda, Australia, Canada, Cook Islands, England, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Wales, defending champions New Zealand and hosts Scotland.
The 2006 team was composed of Mathias Ochwo Azalia, Moses Soita Musonero, Timothy Mudoola, Kenneth Opitto, John Musoke Byuma, Robert Sseguya, Edgar Mutto Lemerigar, Brian Tabaruka Tindikamu, Simon Peter Wakabi, Allan Musoke Ssenkindu (cpt), and Anthony Kinene.