Platinum Credit Heathens RFC have announced Tolbert Onyango as their new head coach.
Onyango takes over from Muhammad Athiyo, who called it a day after nine years in charge of the Kyadondo-based club.
The announcement was made on Thursday, May 13, 2025, in a press statement released by Heathens on their social media pages.
“Tolbert [Onyango] comes with proven pedigree and passion, ready to steer the Club through a transformative era— one grounded in our rich heritage, but reimagined to align with modern global rugby trends.
His leadership begins a new direction as we innovate both on and off the pitch to remain Uganda’s most competitive and relevant rugby brand,” read the statement in part.
Onyango has been Uganda’s men’s 7s national team head coach for the better part of the last two decades.
𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬! 📖
Ladies and Gentlemen, we 𝐎𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐘 present to you 𝐓𝐎𝐋𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐎 our new 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐀𝐂𝐇 of the Platinum Credit Heathens RFC. 💛💙
With his leadership, we renew our charge with belief, with pride, and… pic.twitter.com/1orGqOVx3T
— HEATHENS RUGBY CLUB (@HeathensRFC) May 15, 2025
He has steered Uganda through multiple Word Rugby 7s Series (as an invitational team) and qualification/Challenger events, multiple Africa 7s tournaments (won four times), multiple Commonwealth Games, two Rugby World Cup 7s, three Olympic Games Repêchages, the African Games, multiple Safari 7s, and many other invitational tournaments around the world. He has also overseen the team through the national 7s series as a festival team.
Popularly known as ‘Coach Tolly’ within rugby circles, Onyango is no stranger to Heathens.
The former Kenya 7s international featured for and captained Heathens in the early 2000s. Despite being preoccupied with national 7s duty, Onyango has offered a helping hand to the club in local tournaments.
Now he is fully hands-on as the head coach. His first task will be the more familiar national 7s series in which Heathens are the defending champions.
Onyango’s full technical bench will be announced in due course, according to the press statement released by Heathens.
