RAWC: Two changes in Uganda Lady Cranes to face South Africa

Coach Muhammad Athiyo has made two changes to the team to face South Africa, handing Gertrude Kateesa a starting role and introducing Gorret Babirye for her international debut.

The Lady Cranes suffered a 43-10 defeat on opening day to hosts, the Kenya Lionesses, and immediately shifted their focus to the next game.

According to Charles Onen, the assistant coach of the ladies, that game is now behind them, but with a major takeaway.

“We believe that there are a couple of lessons learned [against Kenya], our defence was really, really bad—missed tackles, the line speed was not there,” Onen noted in an interview with Uganda Rugby media.

The Lady Cranes have gone for consistency, maintaining almost the same team from the weekend to this midweek encounter. This provides stability and match fitness with the broader target of defeating Madagascar’s Lady Makis again at the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup.

In the previous edition, the Ugandans fell victim to a 62-07 defeat to South Africa, a gap that couldn’t have been realistically closed in a 15s game within a year.

For the Lady Cranes, this game is an opportunity to clean up some areas and get their systems going before the decisive one.

“Moving into this game against South Africa, we look forward to a better game, changing some stuff around our defence, and hopefully the girls get to execute it so well,” Onen remarked.

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