Is regional rugby at a crossroads?

What you need to know:

For many years, the local leagues have been without a sponsors, hence teams have been playing with no rewards apart from the trophies handed at the end of the season.
With sponsors coming on board, prize money should be introduced so as to increase the stakes for competition which will in turn lead to better preparations and improved competition.
Analysts contend that Kenya needs to invest in domestic competitions — Kenya Cup, Nationwide and the Eric Shirley Shield leagues — to improve quality.
It will need serious ground work from the Uganda Rugby Union to rescue the situation in the coming years if they have to go back to Division 1A in three years time.

Just what does the future have in store for regional rugby? That was the question after the recent lacklustre performances by the Kenya and Uganda national rugby teams in crucial continental assignments.

The Kenya national rugby 15s team blew a golden opportunity of qualifying for the 2015 Rugby World Cup to be held in the United Kingdom. They finished third in the Africa qualifier in Antananarivo, Madagascar.

The Africa qualifier doubled up as the Confederation of Africa Rugby (CAR) Division 1A championships also known as Africa Cup and World Cup qualifiers. Kenya were the Africa Cup defending champions in the tournament that was held from June 28 to July 6.

Meanwhile, Uganda’s fortunes continued to dwindle. The 2007 Africa Cup champions, who were last year relegated to Division 1B, found themselves sinking further to Division 1C after they lost all their Division 1B encounters. Uganda crashed out of Division 1B after they lost to Senegal 31-32 in the play-off held June in Tunisia.

Perhaps their best chance Kenya had to make their maiden appearance at the RWC finals. However, the end of the journey looked so close and yet so far for the Kenyan team as it failed to qualify finals.

Kenya, who just needed one point in their last match against Zimbabwe, lost 10-28 to lose their chance of making it to rugby’s biggest festival in England and Wales next year.

However, Zimbabwe’s efforts were all in vain as Namibia, who needed 40-plus points from their tie with Madagascar, ended up crushing the hosts 89-10 to make it to their fifth RWC finals at the Mahamasina Stadium.

Kenya had heightened their hopes of making their maiden RWC finals when they edged out Namibia 29-22 and Madagascar 34-0 in their previous matches. The Kenya 15s team had shown improvement, especially in their forwards. This was attributed to their tour of South Africa in March and April where they participated in the Vodacom Cup for the first time.

Namibia would join South Africa for the United Kingdom finals with Zimbabwe getting a second chance to qualify at the Repechage semi-final playoffs against Russia. Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya finished with 10 points each but Namibia had a better aggregate followed by Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe will meet Russia on August 2 with Uruguay taking on Hong Kong in the other semi-final the same day. The winners will then meet in a home and away final with the team with superior aggregate becoming the 20th side to qualify for the RWC finals.

Madagascar, that finished last will be relegated to Division 1B, next year with Division 1B winners Tunisia earning promotion after they defeated Ivory Coast 26-06 in the final.

Kenya may have missed out on funding from the International Rugby Board after they failed to qualify for the RWC finals, but analysts opine the country was not ready yet for the big stage. They contend that Kenya needs to invest in domestic competitions — Kenya Cup, Nationwide and the Eric Shirley Shield leagues — to improve quality.

For many years, the local leagues have been without a sponsors, hence teams have been playing with no rewards apart from the trophies handed at the end of the season. With sponsors coming on board, prize money should be introduced so as to increase the stakes for competition which will in turn lead to better preparations and improved competition.

“The league will get stronger and the players better,” said a Kenyan coach John Mbai.

The restoration of the Bamburi Rugby Super Series to its original goal by having the best 100 players in Kenya to compete against each other after which the best would be called up to the national team . “This sadly is no longer the case and a tournament that was meant to benefit our national team seems to be benefiting Uganda more,” said Mbai.

It goes without saying the test Matches between Kenya and Zimbabwe in a Tri-Nation tournament last year followed by Kenya’s tour of South Africa for the Vodacom brought improvement to the team despite not having qualified. Kenya needs to get more test matches against teams from Europe and South Africa since the standards tend to get better with quality opposition.

“We need to engage with teams from Europe and South Africa on a yearly basis if possible and they don’t necessarily have to be national teams,” Mbai said. “Even professional sides like Western Province from South Africa can offer the quality opposition to begin with then build it up from there,” said Mbai.

Kenya 15a head coach Jerome Paarwater said despite not qualifying Kenya has gained some headway in terms of preparations hence need to build on on the success going to 2019 RWC final.

“The biggest challenge when I came in two years ago was basics since most coaches didn’t have time for the players,” Paarwater said. “I worked on that but we need better infrastructure in terms of modern gymnasium where the players can train freely and not the congested container at the RFUEA ground.”

Uganda Rugby Union (URU)’ s bold decision to begin the transition after last year’s RWC qualifiers with several debutants and youngsters across all the national teams has not yielded the required results as the team dropped to Division 1C.

It will need serious ground work from URU to rescue the situation in the coming years if they have to go back to Division 1A in three years time. Since admission into the International Rugby Board (IRB) in 1997, Ugandan rugby has taken significant steps, winning the tier 1B event in Nairobi in 2002.

Growth continued and culminated into winning the Africa Cup 1A even in Madagascar seven years ago. It was never the turning point as everyone hoped. The team, with one survivor today in Mathias Ochwo, has never hit those heights again. South African Rugby also pulled the plug on technical support extended to Uganda between 2006 and 2009.

Playing in a division that has Botswana, Morocco, Nigeria, Mauritius, Zambia and Niger will mean less IRB funding and maybe even less sponsorship.

Uganda’s coach Peter Magona said all is not lost as they seek to rebuild. “We must enhance our strength and conditioning programmes, need to play more test matches and our local leagues must be strengthened,” said Magona.