After a one year hiatus, competitive rugby will return on March 6th 2021 with the return of the men’s National Rugby Premier League while the ladies will kick-off proceedings with the Regional 10s circuits.
Kick-off for other tournaments like schools events, lower tier leagues and the like will be confirmed later with the Uganda Rugby Union (URU) rolling out its calendar on a phased manner.
The Premier League and the women’s Regional 10s circuits will unveil the competitions calendar post-lockdown and the URU custodians are positive that they are ready to hold competitions.
“We have done our bit, for the rest we shall tackle as we move forward. Things evolve so fast with COVID-19,” URU Vice President, Technical Oscar Olaro said.
Ahead of a possible return of competitive play way back in September last year, URU handed over personal protective equipment (PPE) to rugby clubs and facilities but competitions didn’t return.
According to Olaro, the same PPE which includes; handwash items, sanitizer concentrate, masks, temperature guns and the like will still be used when competitive play returns next month but players will be tested regularly.
The PPE was from Rugby Afrique’s aid in tunes of 5000 Euros to URU. A total of 1500 players, 25 playing facilities and referees benefited from this aid
About 200 fans will be allowed to watch matches but night games (floodlights rugby) which were inaugurated last year have been ruled out due to the 9 p.m nation-wide curfew.