BLOOD, SWEAT AND MEDALS

By Cassious David K
A Saturday morning that started with the heavens opening up and our Nkozi version of Eden Park
soaked up and it momentarily almost ruined our mood towards a day that had fun written all over it. A
few of the die-hard rugby fans and many sports aficionados braved the heavy pours to help in setting up
the pitch and yes, these included our UMU SPOTLIGHT sports correspondents who had to ignore the
rain this time and set up all our media equipment across the pitch and ready ourselves to capture all the
action in mind blowing HD. Anyway back to the sports, the rugby circuit didn’t disappoint at all, there
was a mammoth collection of universities from all over the borders namely Kampala International
university, Ndejje University, Nkumba University and so on, all of which brought their own version of
gladiators to try and challenge for the rights of being named University Rugby 7s Champs. Many of these
were left stunned when they had a glimpse at our team warming up, only then did they begin to realize
why stars like Phillip Wokorach would love to be part of these Nkozi Samurais, the only thing that was
missing maybe was the famous haka, well maybe that would have been too much especially considering
that some voices produced by players like BigE already sound like a haka itself and that’s not putting in
consideration of our coach Mr.Otim Allan. UMU SPOTLIGHT was on hand to bring you the tackles, side
steps, blocks and whatever robust term applies in rugby. Despite the clear focus on the extra-large
athletes and skillful show of power and pace in the matches, rugby was topped up with Muchomo,
music ,all the good-looking ladies in the crowd and lots of drinks being served whilst putting into
consideration some people who were clueless as to what rugby was about , many of them were as if
attending a mass lecture on the sidelines , as many begun to fully understand what a try, scrum-half, fly-
half , turnover is, the organizers deserve a loud round of applause for this very informative presentation.
For the many that filled up the arena, which I have been told by some very talkative sources has a
seating capacity of 500 and ironically a standing capacity of 1000, maybe more of a hyperbole than fact.
The experiences gained by the many was one filled with adrenaline rushes that we only receive when
campus Wi-Fi is off anyway to sum up this whole event was the final between our UMU Samurais and
Kampala international University, that didn’t disappoint us the viewers, it kept us off our seats majorly
because of the tackles and tries and partly when some of the players came tumbling into the crowd
which doesn’t seem frightening till you see a 100+kg man approaching you at the speed of light.
Eventually we predictably emerged victorious in this clash of titans with our 4 tries to their 1 try (lucky
Sniff) our boys delivered the success that they rightfully deserved and brought home a beautiful trophy
with a bag loads of medals, indeed a wonderful way to flag off the many events that were to follow this