A raw take of just a fan.

Match Score Ug 32 Kenya 18
Coaching Score Uganda 100 Kenya 0

Another game with sufficient evidence of the technical inability of our coaches to analyze past matches, identify weaknesses, device apt training strategies to cure the defects and maximize identified strengths. Transform strategies into playing patterns on match day.
I do not gauge successful coaching by wins alone, but more so on evidence of the application of a sound strategy through playing patterns implemented by the coaches via training.

My Take.

Rucks- We got brutalized again. There was an improvement where the ball carrier was not isolated. However the efficiency and body positioning of the cleaners was wanting, where we had to commit more players than necessary to clean the ball, which was not presented optimally, resulting in slow ball, leaving UG with more players available to defend the base. Ug committed fewer players to the ruck whose body positioning and ball presentation was perfect allowing continuity with numbers and more options. Going into the Zim game, more polishing is needed to now work in having fewer players going into rucks and doing so with the right technique to secure the ball and suck in the opponent.

Mauls- How we got this wrong AGAIN is amazing. We seem to have done nothing on this, and if we did it did not show. That the Ug side worked on mauls was apparent, they made light light work of a weak Kenyan side. Our maul defense was awful. Had the Ug maul been used more often we would have suffered a bigger defeat. If only their place kicking was more accurate. Who the heck is our forwards coach!!! How do you call yourself a forwards coach if your side is for three successive games unable to maul and or defend them?

Scrum- Major Improvement. Unlike last week we were not wheeled or beaten at the take. What’s needed is, working on the shove and drive, to put Zim on the backfoot and take out their loose forwards out of the game and to bring ours more into play. Driving them back to disrupt their play and put their backs on the back foot and where perfected driving over the ball for a straight turnover.
(Although the improvement was evident, it was only after “selection’’ of an unfit player whose unfitness cost the team more than it gained from a steady scrum)

Lineouts- We are beyond help. Again I ask myself, do we have a forwards coach? Does he need help or prayers? He best tell us early so that we can rope in as many pastors, imams and soothsayers to seek the divine prayers he so badly needs. Will our lineout be bogus against Zim? YES. Will he use his ‘’great’’coaching mind to eventually finally sort this out, evidence shows he is clueless and needs help from spiritual realm. Get the Ug forwards coach, how long should we wait to realize that we have a serious coaching problem in key and key aspects of the game.

Defense- It’s not the players you pick, but the patterns that are more important. The gaps have to be closed systematically and with either a rush, drift or combined pattern, depending on how the opponent’s backs play. The Ugandan fly half is painfully one dimensional and only bluntly passes the ball out to the first centre. Another team would have made minced meat out of the ug backs. We would have leaked in more tries had their flyhalf been more creative. Our line was broken at will and if only the Ug backs held on to the ball, we would have leaked in more tries, trust the Zim backs not to knock on. This game will prove to all doubters who have by not realized by now that we have a clown of a backs coach. The tries will leak from his backs, he knows it, we know it, Zim know it, but the problem is he has no clue how to close those gaps. He must be thinking of which good tackler to select. God help him.

Attack. You have to thoroughly study your opponents beforehand or in the first few moments of the match, identify weak areas in the defensive line, then repeatedly attack the areas. Continuous work on patterns that either unleashes a strong runner into a created gap, or creation a simple overlap is imperative. You need to have a creative rugby mind to work on these patterns, which are joy to players, and a spectacle to the fans when pulled off successfully. We never had a single overlap or line break. Our wingers were never brought into the game at the wings or released at the centre via crush balls. The potency of such plays was evident when executed by the Ug worked crush ball that led to a try. A simple analysis of our player strengths in relation to the Ug defense required more raised balls behind their backs. The only two or three raised balls were magnificently retrieved by our backs. Why we did not see or use this strength continuously is puzzling. Our wingers are too slow to take on their opponents on the outside, or chase after high balls, The Ugandan flyer showed them how it should be done.

Player Assessment. A player is fit in one week, unfit in the next week, and then fit again in the following week!!!! After this indecision the player, though evidently unfit is selected and ends up being a net weak link in the teams play. Ug play an abrasive forwards game that is not suited for any unfit player. The importance of match fitness and not just physical fitness was clearly evident. How is tank managing to continuously get this wrong? You need a doctorate in blunders to pull this off. This has been the most changed side ever in three games in the recent past. Inability to coach lineouts, mauls and defense cannot be sorted by changing player combinations every week. NO. Proclaiming and pontificating that after rigorous trials, selection and training, you are covered in all positions, then engaging in the most robust player tinkering exercise ever recorded in a competitive tournament proper. This only exposes a shallow technical mind.

Zimbabwe. We will lose by 4+ tries. Expect an extremely well prepared, highly motivated and properly conditioned side that is focused on moving up the IRB rankings. They have by now already won the game by virtue of the superior technical abilities in coaching, match and game reading/analysis, as compared to our blundering and technically deficient coaches. It is no secret, they will attack our lineout, Maul the ball, punch through our centre at will, and our tortoise wingers will be rounded. Their running lines will be direct, with angling predetermined, their passing fluid, with offloads to players in the gap. Their line breaks timed like clockwise with the breaking players well supported with support running off both shoulders. I pray to my gods for the biggest loss ever that will prompt the sacking of our technical team, to be replaced by coaches who can take us somewhere. And this time only, I am taking my patriotic arse and locking it up while praying for a coach from SANZAR.

What is the cure to our problems?
Short-term. Mitch Ocholla for head coach, (Like it or hate it, this is the only rugby brain that is working) assisted by a Ugandan pack/defense coach, and a Zimbabwean backs coach.
Long-term. If we really want to go somewhere, let’s invest in a serious SANZAR coaching team, no matter what it costs, because if we want to go to the world cup we have to bloody pay for it.

Our “coaches” who only select players are now even getting their selection wrong.

Hoping, that coaches with Kenya Cup trophies have sufficient technical experience to lead our team up the ladder is tantamount to hoping that the 11 time Alfred Sambu cup winning coaches experience is sufficient enable him to take Kenya to the FIFA world cup.