Buteme summons 25 for Hong Kong 7s

Kampala. Women’s rugby hit new heights last year when the Lady Rugby Cranes pulled off their best performance at the Africa Sevens Championship in Botswana. They finished second after losing 45-0 to the more studded Kenya Lionesses in the final.
The reward was a trip to Hong Kong in April where they will play in the HSBC World Sevens Series qualifier. Asking them to get clinch core status would be unrealistic, considering the quality they’ll be up against but with sport there is always a chance to beat the odds.

With a couple of months to the qualifier, coach Helen Buteme is not wasting anytime as preparations are underway, starting with naming a provisional 25-man squad that is expected to commence training next week.
“Hopefully we can start training next weekend,” Buteme told Sunday Monitor. Conditioning and aggression will be priority according to Buteme if her girls are to leave a mark in Hong Kong. “The talent is there but we still have a lot of work to do. Majority of the development players need a quite a bit of work on their conditioning,” she added.

The Women’s league starts early February and that will be a big boost to Buteme as it comes with lifting the girls’ fitness levels. The Lady Cranes last outing was in November at the Safaricom Sevens in Nairobi and they’ll be hoping for one or two more tournaments before they leave for Hong Kong.