The 2024 Women’s Nile Special Rugby Premier League will reach it’s climax today with champions Black Pearls hosting Makerere side Ewes while Panthers take on She Wolves.
This season saw the increment of the women’s sides from four to seven in a bid to ensure development of the sport and increased game time for the teams.
While the Bweyogere-based Black Pearls have proven to be a class act in the recent years – ahead of seasoned performers Thunderbirds and Avengers, focus remains on increased participation across the country.
Black Pearls head coach Helen Buteme says there is still need for more efforts to grow women’s rugby.
“15- a-side rugby is not as developed as it should be in Uganda and teams always struggle to have a consistent team. Every year has a huge turnover amongst all teams throughout the league so the quality never goes up as it should but teams have been able to turn out players,” she noted.
“We have had a lot of young players playing 15-a-side rugby for the first time and they have been very impressive. We have Sharifah Kobusingye who joined us towards the end of last season and picked up well. Zulaika Mukyala who was on loan from Njeru RC and her game kept improving, Mary Nakato has also been an outstanding addition. Rebecca Kabajungu who joined us last year and Lilian Namuddu have got into the game really well and have been outstanding,” she added.
Regarding her side’s performance, Buteme says it has been an impressive campaign.
“As Black Pearls we were head and shoulders above the rest of the teams and part of the reason is because I focus on the basics, strength and conditioning and keeping things simple which helped us beat other teams,” she said.
“We came into the league aiming to retain the title and go unbeaten. The target was to win every game with a bonus point and we almost achieved that but we stumbled against Thunderbirds in the return leg,” she added.
Winger Emily Lekuru lead the league scoring charts with 320 points and will be tasked to lead the side out for today’s home encounter at 2pm.
