Irene Namapii, Chairperson of the Uganda Women’s Rugby Association

How Irene felt before, during and after the qualifiers ... A few months before the qualifiers, I felt that we deserved to qualify because of our no. 2 ranking after S.A in Africa. Our only real threat was Tunisia. 3-4 weeks to the qualifiers, I felt that our chances would no longer be dead sure if the training sessions were not regular and if we did not get financial backing. I was really worried especially about Tunisia as they had thorough preparation plans and the fact that Kenya had brought in their men's 7s experts. 2 weeks to the games, my confidence in the team returned as I watched their training sessions and saw girls putting their bodies on the line in games against Ugandan local men’s 2nd tier clubs. Alas, exactly one week before the event, in Jinja on the sunday, I saw my dreams collapse before me, when there was serious tension in the camp. Thankfully this was sorted out and the girls rallied together and my confidence in them was restored. During the tournament, we played well, but Tunisia and S.A worried me. I was really heartbroken when we failed to use our chances to score on Saturday afternoon and ended up losing to Tunisia. However, by saturday evening, after crying about their loss the girls pulled themselves together and promised to win the semifinal. I was then sure that we were going to qualify, especially after I learnt that we would meet Tunisia again. When we beat Tunisia, I was in a daze and was one of the fans that ran onto the pitch after the game dancing and hugging the players. even though I celebrated with the team and the fans, the excitement of qualifying hit me the next day and continued for the whole week. I’ve been celebrating the whole week and it will be hard to put my feet back on the ground.

Job well done lady cranes and the lady cranes management team.