Uganda's women will create history as their nation's first qualifiers for a World Cup when they take to the field at RWC Sevens 2009 in Dubai and are determined to leave a lasting impression.
She will now also be providing a weekly blog for rwcsevens.com to reveal how training is going, the excitement in the camp, their hopes for Dubai and a thought for the week they are using as an inspirations.
The team spirit is very high and we are bonding perfectly. The girls are working hand in hand to ensure that we all reach our personal targets and most importantly of all we believe in ourselves. It can only get better.
This week we focused on contact situations and defence, then worked on our game plan and I think that it’s been the best week of training so far. It started off light earlier in the week to give us a chance to recover from our three-day camp and then the intensity was turned on.
The great thing is that we were all able to match up to it and everything seemed to come together. Less mistakes, players oozing confidence and happiness all round. Even our coaches have had a lot to smile about.
We have been drawn with New Zealand, South Africa and Italy in Pool D at the World Cup and I must admit that it took a couple of days for the team as a whole to get over the shock of that draw. But then, when we realised the task ahead of us, it galvanised us to set new targets and push ourselves harder than before.
We are determined not to be doormats or tourists at the World Cup. The attitude in the team changed a couple of days after the draws were announced and we are now looking forward to the World Cup. We may be underdogs but our bite will be worse than our bark.
Sometimes I get so excited thinking about getting the chance to represent my country at a World Cup and then there is the stadium itself - 100,000 fans! Then when I think more about it I get nervous.
The greatest experience ever
This is big – really big. We’ll be on a global stage.
I also think it’s fantastic that the IRB has included women in this RWC Sevens. Having women’s rugby at this RWC Sevens will give Uganda a chance to showcase ourselves and it also allows us to play countries that we could only dream about playing before. It will be the greatest experience ever.
The coverage we got when we qualified was fantastic. For two weeks, all the sports press wrote about or talked about was the Lady Cranes - the nickname for our women’s rugby team. There were interviews, features and details of exactly how we qualified for the World Cup.
We were also unanimously voted the Uganda Sports Press Association (USPA) Personality for the month of September. It was the first time in the history of the awards that the vote had been unanimous and it was the first time that a women’s sport or a sport other than football got so much media attention - except for the Olympics.
But that attention was short-lived and the following month the press had resumed its usual obsession with football. It’s disappointing really because we are the highest achievers in Ugandan sport and we deserve a lot more hype than we are getting.
Having said that, my special thought of the week is that nothing is impossible so watch out for the Lady Cranes in Dubai.
Helen Buteme will bring us more news from the Uganda camp next week, but in the meantime you can check out her blog which is keeping their fans around the world in the know as Dubai draws ever closer
