Coming off a weekend of the Guinness National Rugby Sevens finals, the Rugby Cranes team that will be playing at this year’s Africa Men’s 7s was unveiled at Legends Rugby Club.
The rugby fraternity and Guinness will be preparing for the Africa Men’s 7s Cup which will be hosted in Kampala on the 6th – 7th October at Legends Rugby Grounds. But first, the Rugby Cranes 7s team will play in this year’s Oktoberfest Tournament in Munich, Germany on the 28th and 29th September.
Speaking at the unveiling of the Rugby Cranes team ahead of the upcoming Oktoberfest and Africa Men’s 7s Cup, Samuel Nikoma, Chairman Organising Committee of the Uganda Rugby Union said; “We are delighted to be hosting the upcoming Africa Men’s 7s Cup as well as having the opportunity to play at the Oktoberfest Tournament in Munich. Our team is ready and we shall put up a worthwhile fight.”
“The Oktoberfest tournament promises to be a very tough and exciting tournament and will pit Uganda against the world’s best teams which is a perfect warm up for the Africa 7s tournament that we host a week later. Eric Kasita retains the captaincy of the team to this event that has 4 changes to the team that played at the last tournament in Hong Kong as the coach looks to get some depth ahead of the Africa 7s in October.” He added.
For the Africa Men’s 7s Cup, the top two teams at the end of this tournament will qualify for the Rugby World Cup 7s tournament to be held in San Francisco in July 2018. The top ranked Commonwealth team will also qualify for the Commonwealth games to be held in Gold Coast in April 2018. In addition, the top two teams will also have a chance to play in the HSBC World Sevens Series Core team qualification tournament in Hong Kong in April 2018 while the tournament winners will play the 2017 Dubai and Cape Town legs of the HSBS world Rugby Sevens Series.
The Guinness sponsored Rugby Cranes will travel to Germany for the Oktoberfest on 26th September and return on 3rd October ahead of the Africa Men’s 7s Cup. The Oktoberfest Rugby 7s tournament is held in Munich, Germany annually as part of the Germany Oktoberfest festival. This tournament attracts only the top teams in the World. Uganda by virtue of being Africa Champions and by its relationship with the tournament organisers, landed an invite to be part of the top 12 twelve teams that will take part in this tournament.
The Rugby Cranes Men’s 7s team will play in a very tough pool that has England, Argentina and Hosts Germany in pool B. World Series Champions, South Africa headline Pool A and are joined by France, Spain and Portugal while Olympic Champions Fiji are placed in Pool C alongside Australia, Chile and Ireland.
Speaking at the unveiling of the Rugby Cranes Men’s 7s team, Estella Muzito, the Head of Beers at Uganda Breweries Limited said; “We have had an exciting six weeks of 7s rugby and we hope to continue on the same journey. We are delighted to be unveiling our national stars, the Rugby Cranes Men’s Sevens team that will be carrying our flag in Germany at the Oktoberfest tournament as well as playing in the Africa Men’s 7s. We wish them all the best and hope they fight to the end.”
“Guinness will continue being involved in the development of sports in Uganda. Our efforts continue to bring success to the rugby industry as our partnership with the Uganda Rugby Union grows stronger.” She added.
Guinness came into partnership with the Uganda Rugby Union and took on the sponsorship of the Uganda National Sevens team by contributing UGX 200 million to the development of the team and sport. Of the contribution, UGX 100 million was contributed in cash. The renewed partnership is running for the next three years.
