Toyota Buffaloes beating KCB KOBs at Kyadondo was the biggest shock in the first leg of the 2025 men’s playoffs quarterfinals.
KOBs were lacklustre and Buffaloes were in the right place at the right time to help them fall on their own sword.
The visitors’ head coach, Timothy Mudoola, carried the burden of the loss saying, “It’s us as KOBs that handed them that victory. They even didn’t have to work hard for it but they showed hunger. It comes with hunger really to force the better team to make mistakes.”
The hosts’ captain, Liam Walker, said, “You know the moments to take your opportunity. When the opportunity arises, you have got to jump at it. We did that today and it worked out in our favour.”
Since the playoffs quarterfinals and semifinals are set up as a two-legged home-and-away fixtures, it presents an interesting conundrum for Ugandan rugby.
The “big” three rugby clubs in Uganda are still at such an arm’s distance from the rest of the country that it is unfathomable for them to lose two successive matches to the same “smaller” team— or even amongst themselves.
For example, as we saw last season in the semifinals, Hippos beat Pirates in Jinja but the Sea Robbers recovered at Kings Park and Heathens sailed over KOBs at Legends but KOBs fought back valiantly across the road.
Now this season, a round earlier in the quarterfinals, Buffaloes did half the job against KOBs.
Almost immediately after fulltime at Kyadondo, the 17-07 score left everyone who saw with their own eyes, and many others who got it in the news later, wondering if Buffaloes could do it the very next weekend in the second leg at Legends.
It is not impossible. After consulting with Isa Metrics, the leading statistical analyst in Ugandan rugby, NBS Sport found that they have done it before.
In the 2013 season, which coincidentally was also played the current format, Buffaloes beat KOBs by 22-19 in the regular season and followed it up with a 22-20 in the then-Super Cup semifinal.
The difference between the 2013 and 2025 playoffs is that this year’s has two legs from which the winner by aggregate score will be determined.
As it stands right now, Buffaloes hold a ten-point advantage over KOBs which, according to men on both sides, is not insurmountable.
Walker said “ten points is nothing” and Mudoola asserted that “we can close that gap in ten, twenty minutes.”
But, on the other hand, the numbers from the first legs in which only one of the four quarterfinals ended with a higher margin, suggest ten points is something.
Full Quarterfinals (Second Leg) Fixtures:
- Kings Park – 3 p.m.: Stanbic Black Pirates v Walukuba Barbarians
- Kyadondo – 4 p.m.: Platinum Credit Heathens v Victoria Sharks
- Legends – 4 p.m.: KCB KOBs v Toyota Buffaloes
- Damwaters – 4 p.m.: Hippos v Rhinos
