Africa Rugby Gold Cup: A losing finish for Uganda

Africa Rugby Gold Cup

Uganda 18 Zimbabwe 38

KAMPALA - Uganda slumped to a 38-18 defeat at home to Zimbabwe as their Africa Rugby Gold Cup campaign wound up on an anti-climax.

The Rugby Cranes came into the game at Kyadondo assured of third place in the final standings while the Zimbabwe Sables were in danger of relegation and would draw first blood with a five-minute try from Connor Pritchard.

The visitors would not look back, never trailing against a home team that never got out of first gear in a game that would have seen them complete their Gold Cup campaign with a winning record. As it is, Uganda end the tournament 2-3 and with a fair bit of soul searching required.

The Cranes came into the game with a disrupted camp as contracted 15s players expressed anger about delayed payment of their wages.

Post-match interactions with the Cranes confirmed that the unrest played a part in their disjointed display.

"Definitely it impacted the performance of the game because it is always good to go to the game when you're happy and everything has been sorted," said Cranes assistant skipper Michael Okorach.

Byron Oketayot and Okorach were Uganda's two try scorers, with Phillip Wokorach adding eight points from two penalties and a conversion.