History beckons for Black Pirates

Nile Special Premier Rugby League

Tomorrow

Hippos v Pirates (Jinja 4.30pm)

Rhinos v Rams (Legends, 4.30pm)

Buffaloes v Warriors (Kyadondo, 2.30 pm) 

Heathens v Mongers (Makerere, 4.30pm)            

Impis v Kobs, 4.30pm             

History awaits the Black Pirates in Jinja. The sort of history that threatened to never happen, that painfully passed by the Pirates one too many times.

The history of first-time champions.

Table leaders at the start of today's action, the Pirates will graduate to Rugby Premier League champions for the first time in their oft-frustrating 20-year history with a win over Jinja in Jinja. In the same season they won the Uganda Cup, a maiden championship would be mindboggling for a club that's often been the butt of jokes.

"I don't know how it will feel like (when we become champions)," said Pirates coach Bobby Musinguzi after their 3-0 defeat to the Shell Rimula Rhinos last week that delayed his team's championship party.

It was the Pirates' only true defeat of the season, the other coming by way of a boardroom decision, and it is expected to be the last one for Musinguzi's team in a memorable campaign. There will be some jitters, as happened against the Rhinos where Musinguzi believes the players were distracted by the potential of being champions and failed to focus on the game-plan needed to dispatch their opponents, who can win the title if the Pirates lose their last two matches.

But this time, it will take a miracle for the Pirates to be denied.