Rugby World Cup 7s: Uganda upbeat ahead of opener against Samoa

Uganda will be up against Samoa in their opening match of the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2022, which takes place from 9-11 September at Cape Town Stadium.

Uganda Sevens who are the Africa champions are making their second appearance at the global stage and will seek to put up a better show after finishing 18th in the previous (2018) edition held in San Francisco, USA.

Uganda Sevens had their final training on Thursday in Cape Town and Coach Tolbert Onyango says that his side are up for the challenge.

“Cape Town has been lovely so far. It’s now game time. Ready or not, here we come! We have put in enough work,” Onyango told Uganda Rugby media

Onyango adds that opening matches are always tricky and shaky but his boys will put up a good show.

“Normally, the first game on day one, is the toughest and we look forward to giving our best shot,” Onyango added.

The unique ‘winner takes all’ knock-out competition format first introduced at Rugby World Cup Sevens 2018 in San Francisco means every match counts as teams will need to win every time they enter the pitch in order to become world champions.

The 24-team men’s competition kicks off the action on day one with a qualification round involving teams seeded from nine to 24. The winners of the qualification round will progress to the round of 16 where they will take on the top eight seeded teams, while the losers will go into the Bowl competition which will decide positions 17 to 24.

If Uganda Sevens win against Samoa, they will face USA in the round of 16.

There will be some hard fought matches in the qualification round as ninth seeds Ireland, who have been in outstanding form on the World Series this year, play Portugal, who overcame core Series team Spain in the European qualifier to claim their place in Cape Town.

Germany and Chile who have both impressed as invitational teams on the World Series come face-to-face in the qualification round where fireworks can be expected with survival at stake.

Hosts South Africa are top seeds in men’s tournament following a remarkable 36-match winning streak which saw them win six rounds of the World Series in a row across 2021-2022. However they will face stiff competition with Australia seeded second and double Olympic champions Fiji seeded third. New Zealand are the reigning men’s champions and are seeded fifth coming in to the event.

Uganda’s Squad

Michael Wokorach (captain), Ian Munyani (vice-captain), Desire Ayera, Aaron Ofoywroth, Adrian Kasito, Timothy Kisiga, Philip Wokorach, Alex Aturinda, Ivan Otema, Karim Arinaitwe, Nobert Okeny, William Nkore.

Fixtures

Pre-round of 16 Friday 9, September 2022

Ireland vs Portugal 9.45am

Canada vs Zimbabwe 10.07am

Samoa vs Uganda 10.29am

Scotland vs Jamaica 10.51am

Kenya vs Tonga 11.23am

Wales vs Korea 11.45am

Hong Kong vs Uruguay 12.07pm

Germany vs Chile 12.29pm

Round of 16

England vs Winner M1 3.39pm