Aalliya Adania

Aalliya Adania
24 April 1988
Height: 5’4
Weight: 68.5kg

Aalliya says ... On Friday I was so nervous that I could not sleep. My roommate (fortunate) slept early so I went to winnie’s room and we stayed up quite late chatting to calm our nerves. Unfortunately for me, winnie fell asleep in the middle of our conversation and her roommate (kayonjo) was already dreaming. I went back to my room but after several minutes of tossing and turning I got out of bed and walked up and down in the corridor outside our rooms. I eventually tired out and went back to winnie’s room and crawled underneath her blankets and went to sleep. I woke up again at about 4.00am and returned to my room. i switched on the tv and danced to keep my mind off rugby. strangely enough I had a really huge appetite at breakfast and my teammates could not believe the amount of food I had stacked on my plate.

By the time we got to the pitch on Saturday, I was ready for anything and was sure that God would guide us to victory. When prossy got injured against Botswana, I went on to substitute her and almost scored a try. That white line was right in front of me but someone held onto my shorts and I could not move forward however hard I pumped my legs. Christine was right behind me supporting so I popped the ball to her and she scored. It was a great moment for me.

We lost to Tunisia in our pool game and that pissed me off cause we no longer had a 100% chance of qualifying for the world cup. i thought we might meet south Africa in the semi final and in that case it was a 50 – 50 chance. Either one of us could win that game. When the organisers said that we would meet Tunisia again in the semi final, I started smelling the world cup because I knew there was no way that we would lose to Tunisia again. I slept at peace and woke up on Sunday feeling victorious.

The semi final was a tense encounter and it was even worse watching it from the bench. I (visible in picture) cried when the final whistle went and it was all too much for me. My teammates – helena, harriet, charlotte, brenda, yogi, christine, prossy, rose, mary and winnie – and of course myself are all heroines while mutaks and soggy are heroes.

Cheers lady cranes and the big one to God the Almighty.

feelings

before i close this blog, i'll post feelings of members of the world cup bound squad about the whole qualification process.

Relief

I was so relieved when it was all over. I was finally able to break my 8 and a half month alcohol fast and get back some semblance of a social life. I had dedicated all my time to my job and rugby and deserted all my friends (I wonder if we will recognise each other now). We have a 2 week break from rugby so I no longer need to strap my ankles and shoulder. Although putting on the strapping was fine – taking it off that was a problem. It was an extremely painful experience and I had to go through that on an almost daily basis as I could not run or kick without strapping, even if I wore sneakers.

We were only four experienced 7’s players in the squad but as a team we knew each others strengths and weaknesses and made sure we covered our weaknesses while exploiting our strengths. This was surely the best national team that I have ever played in. I am so happy that the team that a lot of people wrote off as being too inexperienced justified mutaks’ and soggy’s belief in us and we have achieved what no other Ugandan sports team has ever managed to achieve.

women’s rugby in Uganda is now the highest achieving sport and we have given the young female rugby players a goal and set a standard for them.

To our fans, our families and friends who have stood by us, the Uganda rugby union, the Uganda women’s rugby association, dr connie, the 7’s management team and our unwavering sponsors – ICEMARK – a big thank you. We would never have got this far without you.

and now, our journey is not over yet. Although we’ve been given a break, when we resume training it will be tougher than what we went through for the qualifiers. we now have a bigger stage to perform on and a larger audience.

DUBAI AND THE WORLD, HERE WE COME!

Do or die

Sunday 21st September: charlotte woke me up early in the morning to ask if she could borrow my spare head gear. I did not have the heart to tell her that she was not going to play. connie had said her concussion was severe and she needed at least 3 weeks and possibly longer before she resumed playing. I gave her the head gear and went back to sleep. She came back later wearing the head gear and asked me to strap her ankle. I got tape from connie and strapped her ankle. We were told not to tell charlotte that she was not going to play. connie said she would find the right moment to break the news to her. charlotte spent the whole morning wearing the head gear so that she could get used to it. It was sadly comical.

We left the hotel at 12.30 and instead of going to kyadondo rugby club we went to kampala rugby club to warm up away from the distractions of the home crowd and our Tunisian opponents. At 2.30 we arrived at kyadondo rugby club: our game was at 3. by the time we (in red) got onto pitch for our semifinal we knew that we were going to win. In attack, I still had to play at fly half while winnie and kayonjo kept alternating between centre and wing. In defence, kayonjo would go to flyhalf, winnie to centre while I would got to the wing to neutralise the dangerous Tunisian winger. Our plan worked and we held the Tunisians (in white) in their half for the first half. We scored a try through Christine that I converted for us to take the 07 - 00 lead. Once again we wasted try scoring opportunities but we put in big tackles and it reached a point that the Tunisians did not want to be caught with possession and their winger was unable to penetrate our defence. Even after Brenda was sent off in the second half they were unable to capitalise on their advantage. When the referee blew the final whistle, the pitch was invaded by ecstatic Ugandans. Players were lifted shoulder high and it took 10 minutes for the tournament organisers to clear the pitch so the other games could go on. We had made history: our hard work had paid off and we were going to dubai.

We played the final against south Africa and although we had thrown everything we had into the game against Tunisia we still put up a good fight against our southern opponents. we turned over almost all the south African scrums but did not use our chances effectively. Even after one of the south Africans was sin binned we still failed to score. The south Africans on the other hand maximised on their chances and scored 2 tries in each half. The final score was 24 – 00.

day 1

Saturday 20th September: I did not have breakfast and I felt sick. I strapped my ankles as well as charlotte and prossy’s and took my time doing it to calm my nerves. Connie, our team doc, strapped my right shoulder then offered to give me a jab to keep the pain at bay. I warned her to keep needles away from me if she wanted me in the right frame of mind to play.

We got to the tournament venue (kyadondo rugby club) at midday and there was a nice big crowd. Ugandans had shown up in big numbers to support us. We were either going to make history as uganda’s first ever world cup bound team or we would end up on the huge pile of Ugandan sporting failures. We were under huge pressure to succeed and we all felt it. More so the senior players (charlotte, christine, winnie and i) who had the rookies looking up to us.

Our union had got us brand new kit and it looked good – it looked better than the men’s kit – and we stood tall. Our first game was against Zimbabwe and they did not present to us much of a challenge. I was playing on the wing but winnie (who was playing centre) and I kept switching positions in attack to spice up our attacking moves. We beat Zimbabwe 30 - 00. the Botswana game was just as easy and we came off the pitch with a 48 – 00 win.

The much anticipated clash was our game against Tunisia and it was the last game of the day. We kept the Tunisians in their 22 so the first half of the game but squandered so many try scoring opportunities. Charlotte got concussed after making a big tackle so I had to switch from the wing to flyhalf while winnie (with ball in picture) went to the wing and kayonjo came in at centre. We went into half time tied at 0 – 0. early on in the second half I scored out wide but twisted my ankle slightly in the process. Our number one kicker (charlotte) was off and I could not kick at that moment so Christine attempted the conversion and missed. We were 5 – 0 up. a break in concentration had the tunisian flying winger scoring a try between the posts. The conversion was missed and the score was 5 -5. in the last 2 minutes, the Tunisian captain was sent off for a professional foul and although we put the Tunisians under pressure we knocked on in their 5 and the Tunisians scored off the scrum after collecting a deep kick over our heads. This time round the conversion was good and the Tunisians won the game 12 – 05. we were devastated and there was not a dry eye in the team. Mutaks and soggy had a hard task trying to lift our spirits. The top 4 teams were reseeded after day 1, south Africa has scored more tries than Tunisia so were number 1. we had scored more tries than Kenya so were seed 3. south Africa were to meet Kenya again (seed 1 versus seed 4) while we also met Tunisia again (seed 2 versus seed 3) in the semifinals. We went to sleep after planning how to exact revenge on the Tunisians.

Final touches

Wednesday 17th – Friday 19th September: we checked into hotel equatorial after our Wednesday training session. We found the Tunisians already settled in and at home. we went through our moves on Thursday morning and afternoon and did the final touches on Friday morning. After the Friday session, we had to go through the ice bath. Soggy insisted we all had to get in for one minute. he told the faint hearted to do it in sets of 15 seconds. Winnie and aalliya each did one and a half minutes at one sitting. Fortunate did one minute at one sitting then later got back in and did 2 minutes. Yogi, prossy and rose did their one minute with minimum fuss while Christine did hers in 4 sets of 15 seconds. Kyoita, Brenda, charlotte, kayonjo and I provided the usual drama. kayonjo put in her legs for 5 seconds then got out while Charlotte and kyoita immersed their bodies for 10 seconds then got out while shedding tears. The team tried to convince me that the ice would do my ankles and shoulder a world of good. I sniffed my disbelief and tearfully eyed the ice bath. Brenda looked ready to collapse and also refused to get in. soggy eventually gave up trying to persuade the two of us and kayonjo to get in and kyoita and charlotte to complete their 3 sets of 15 seconds. we went back to the hotel and spent the afternoon relaxing (I got straight into a hot tub of water) and watched dvds of men’s IRB 7s series games for inspiration.

south africa arrived early on friday morning, while zambia around lunch time. kenya, zimbabwe and botswana arrived in the evening. cote d’ivoire and madagascar pulled out at the last minute so a Uganda A team had to assembled so that the teams could be divided into 2 pools of 4. we had our old adversaries tunisia, debutants botswana and zimbabwe. we knew our toughest game would be Tunisia. they had finances that we did not have and had camped in france for one week and then in south Africa for another week before coming to Uganda. the south africans had been touring the world taking part 7's tournaments gasint world class teams . We had camped in jinja (uganda) for 2 days prior to the tournament. All of a sudden our preparations seemed inadequate ...

final 12

Tuesday 16th September:

Aalliya Adania (Rangers)
24 April 1988
Height: 5’4
Weight: 68.5kg

Winnie Atyang (Thunderbirds)
27 September 1985
Height: 5’7
Weight: 71.5kg

Helen Buteme (Black Panthers)
27 May 1980
Height: 5’4
Weight: 54kg

Fortunate Irankunda (Black Panthers)
20 May 1983
Height: 5’2
Weight: 83.5kg

Rosenburg Kanyunyuzi (Thunderbirds)
22 January 1984
Height: 5’2
Weight: 59.5kg

Brenda Kayiyi (Black Panthers)
11 February 1987
Height: 5’1
Weight: 55.5kg

Harriet Kayonjo (Thunderbirds)
12 December 1972
Height: 5’5
Weight: 57kg

Christine Kizito (Thunderbirds) – Captain
16 November 1975
Height: 5’9
Weight: 101.5kg

Mary Kyoita (Rangers)
19 April 1986
Height: 5’0
Weight: 49kg

Charlotte Mudoola (Rangers)
2 August 1984
Height: 5’3
Weight: 55kg

Prossy Nakakande (Black Panthers)
5 March 1984
Height: 5’3
Weight: 55kg

Josephine Namayega (Thunderbirds)
15 September 1979
Height: 5’8
Weight: 76kg

Coaches: David Mutaka and Robert Seguya
Team manager: Jeroline Akubu
Team doctor: Dr. Connie Olwit

Aalliya, Fortunate, Rosenburg, Brenda, Prossy and Josephine (Yogi) get their first 7’s caps while Mary gets her first ever cap.

rumour has it that Tunisia arrives tomorrow.

we check into hotel equatoria tomorrow so this will be my last entry until after the tournament.

3 days to go.

final trials/build up

Saturday 13th – Sunday 14th September: our final trial games and build up. now we wait for the real thing.

no training on monday. we resume on tuesday.

7 days to go

Friday 12th September: game plan, game plan, game plan. was a good session. at the start, the weather looked dodgy but at least it held until we finished training. hope it holds for the tournament too. in my opinion, there is nothing uglier than wet 7’s.

we go to jinja tomorrow for a 2 day camp.

Ice bath and the 14

Wednesday 27th August – Wednesday 10th September: fitness, contact drills, games and game plan (defence and attack). along the way, robert seguya (soggy) joined the coaching team as mutaks’ co-coach - he’s played lots of 7’s for uganda. training has been going well except the deadly boda boda (joan andika) and no nonsense asha sonko are both injured and are unlikely to recover in time for the tournament.

after a hillwork session with doc the dreaded ice bath reared its ugly head on wednesday (10th sept). it provided comedy depending on which way one looked at it. the ice bath is supposed to help with quick recovery and one has to get in up to the neck and stay there for between 40 seconds to one minute (sheer madness if you ask me). anyway, we had one prior to the elgon cup (which we lost) in august as a 15’s team and charlotte and i made a big production about not getting into the ice. tears were shed but eventually charlotte got in for about 10 seconds however i escaped. after a long struggle, kayonjo (in picture with ball) got in and afterwards swore that people wanted to kill her ... this time round, other actresses wrote themselves into the icebath comedy script: kyoita and brenda (2 rookies) were dragged kicking and screaming into the showers while kayonjo took off into the night faster than usain bolt. charlotte and i tried appealing to docs sweet nature and came up with all sorts of allergies to cold water but he was having none of it. in the end, charlotte, kyoita and i jumped in together screaming blue murder and chanting ‘we can do it, we can do it’ then got out after 10 seconds yelling that we could not. doc was not at all impressed and ordered us back in. after lots of drama, we completed our 40 seconds in sets of 10. brenda got into the icebath looking like she was going for a funeral and did about 20 seconds in sets of 10 before doc’s heart softened and he let her go. as for kayonjo, she re-emerged from her hiding place in time for the team supper …

after the team supper, mutaks read out the provisional squad of 14 – he said the final cut will be on 17th.

The 14

Aalliya Adania (Rangers)
Winnie Atyang (Thunderbirds)
Stella Bakole (Thunderbirds)
Helen Buteme (Black Panthers)
Fortunate Irankunda (Black Panthers)
Rachael Kakaire (Thunderbirds)
Rosenburg Kanyunyuzi (Thunderbirds)
Brenda Kayiyi (Black Panthers)
Harriet Kayonjo (Thunderbirds)
Christine Kizito (Thunderbirds)
Mary Kyoita (Rangers)
Charlotte Mudoola (Rangers)
Prossy Nakakande (Black Panthers)
Josephine Namayega (Thunderbirds)