In qualifying for the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai in March, Uganda's Lady Cranes became the first ever sports team from their country to reach the final stages of a World Cup event.
In the aftermath of qualification on home soil in September 2008 the team's achievements were seized upon by local press and, for once, attention was lavished on the players. Messages of support came in, the country rounded behind the team and, inspired by a renewed sense of pride, senior team member Helen Buteme set up a blog to allow fans to track their progress online.
Buteme describes her initial emotions after qualifying as 'disbelief, then joy and then a feeling of being completely overwhelmed'.
"I just wanted a way to let people know about women's rugby in Uganda," Buteme told Total Rugby Radio.
"It's a way for the players to express themselves, to put down in words how they are feeling and say what they are going through, so that people who perhaps don't have access to newspapers and other media can get to know a little bit about us."
The most recent and amusing postings come from Buteme's teammates, one of whom only took up rugby two months ago. They describe their feelings at receiving her text message relaying their pool draw at the World Cup.
'... After a couple of minutes I checked the message and it read ‘World Cup draw group D: New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Uganda.’ I fell out of my bed as I swore all the known swear words plus invented some of my own. My stomach went crazy and I hopped about my bedroom not sure what I was feeling ... After that I went for training. I did not even have lunch. I was about two hours early for training but I could not stay in the house. I thought I was going to go mad.'
- Rosenburg Kanyunyuzi
'On January 19th at exactly 1449hrs I got a text message that totally confused me. I was still in bed so at first I thought that I was having a daymare. I read the message about five times before I understood it then started wailing. My dad happened to be at home that day and he rushed to my bedroom to find out what was wrong. I could not answer any of his questions and pushed my mobile phone into his hands. He read that message and remarked casually, ‘Ah, so you are scared’ ... ‘Of course, I’m scared. What do you know about rugby and New Zealand?’'
- Aalliya Adania
To read more go to ladycranesevensworldcupbound.blogspot.com >>
Another of Buteme's favourite topics is her love-hate relationship with the gym, and her ever-expanding biceps.
"They're not that big by most people's standards, but if you had seen my arms before, you'd actually think they're huge," she said.
"If I'd said to most people before that I played rugby they'd probably have rolled over laughing, but now when they see my arms it's a different story."
With the extra hours in the gym has come a greater confidence throughout the squad. Initial fear at facing the likes of New Zealand has now made way for excitement.
"At first we were worried about the other teams but now we've accepted that we're going in there as underdogs and have turned that round to our advantage. We just want to go out there and make sure that people know about Ugandan rugby.
"It's really changed our lives in all sorts of ways. Rugby is an amateur sport so we've just been playing for fun, there hasn't really been a professional approach to it but now we're seeing such a change, putting rugby first, putting our all into it.
"Our approach is different and it's helped our rugby to become a lot better and helped people to take us more seriously."
