By Faith Kiai
Nile Special Rugby Premier League
Fixtures
Kobs 7 Pirates 23
Heathens 65 Rams
Hippos 55 Walukuba 9
Buffaloes 13 Impis 3
Mongers 15 Rhinos 15
Pirates defeated Kobs to claim the 2022/2023 Nile Special Rugby Premier League title at Legends on Saturday, May 13.
The winner takes all nature of the match saw Pirates come up with a pointed game plan.
Every penalty within kicking distance was punished which was how they took an early penalty to open the scoring on 3-0 thanks to Ivan Magomu. Not long after that two more penalties were taken up and once again Magomu was on hand to stretch the lead to 9-0.
Kobs found the first half too tough to handle with Pirates winning territorial battles.
They got an opportunity to pull three back deep in the first half but Joseph Aredo missed the polls keeping Pirates lead at 9-0. Pirates towards the end of the first half continued winning most of the bigger duels and were rewarded with the lead at halftime.
It was all bad for Kobs because players like Adrian Kasiito who saw
The second half started with more spice than the first and it came without a shock when Pirates took it up a notch and ended up being rewarded with a try through Timothy Odong. Kobs tried to give it a big fight but were caught napping when Conrad Wanyama’s kick was chased down by a very determined Desire Ayera to get a try out of the left field.
With the score at 23-0, it was a late surge of confidence and determination that gave Kobs a well-worked try when all their chips had fallen.
With that try came the end of the fight for Kobs as Pirates finally added number two to their cabinet.
Ivan Magomu was given the Man of the Match award for his 100 percent kicking.
“It wasn’t our best performance. Pirates came with the passion to win the trophy even if we gave it our all. They just had a better strategy than we did,” said Kobs Emmanuel Echodu.
Pirates captain Ivan Magomu was happy about how well the team improved amidst all the adversity.
“We worked hard we played with one purpose and that was to win. I have been practicing the kinking all week because I knew it This would be a game of small margins,” he said.
After the match Kobs were left with a tropical storm of emotion filled with regrets but both sides could agree rugby was the winner.
Heathens defeated the Rams to finish second on the table.
