The rise of Walukuba Barbarians
Walukuba Barbarians shocked the local rugby fraternity when they weathered the storm to win the Nile Special Mileke Border Sevens last weekend at the Elgon View Grounds in Tororo.
The team had been building momentum from the onset reaching the quarterfinals in the the first and second circuits Jinja and Kitgum and the Challenger Cup in Rujumba and Kyadondo Sevens before Mileke fete.
To achieve that, the Barbarians wandered in the thickets of Walukuba, a Jinja city suburb that nestles between an old housing village, small-scale factories and industries and a scanty landing site that rests on the shores of Lake Victoria, for a decade.
Walukuba, just like their city-rivals Jinja Hippos, started after the fallout and subsequent demise of the famous Nile Rugby Football Club.
After the downfall, six players from Nile dared to dream about starting a rugby powerhouse in a neighbourhood whose bloodline was football.
The six include current club secretary and head coach Leonard Lubambula, Abel Chadribo, Gerald Wandera, Denis Wakate, Bashir Baka and their former president Duncan Kirya.
The latter is now an executive committee member in the Uganda Rugby Union, representing the upcountry teams. Chadribo served as the club president from its inception to 2016 before handing over to Kirya. Innocent Olweny took over last year and will vacate this year ahead of club elections.
The six faced a major hurdle in introducing a "strange" sport to the community and thus, the received a rude reception. It was almost impossible to compete for the pitch with football.
Walukuba is known for its rich history in football, producing some of the greatest players who have graced the national team. From the likes of the Jalendo brothers Charles and Kissa, the legendary goalkeeper Bright Dhaira and his son Abel, Steven Bogere and his younger brother Alex Isabirye to former Uganda Cranes captain Geoffrey Massa, Walukuba has been a hotbed of football talent.
“We chose Walukuba, but there were many challenges because it was a football community that made it even harder to access the pitch,” Leornard Lubambula tells SCORE.
“The first major task was to convince the community and change their mindsets to embrace rugby. It has been a long journey but is finally reaping,” he sighs with relief.
Walukuba uses the Tobacco ground that has been christened the ‘Abel Dhaira Stadium’ in honour of the late Uganda Cranes keeper.
The club started its activities properly in 2013 and registered with the Eastern Uganda Rugby Union.
The team joined the regional league in the same year, but there were just a handful of teams in the league, a situation that stunted their growth.
While rugby has been known as a game for the more fortunate in society who passed through top schools, Lubambula and his friends looked the other way! They embarked on a rare but interesting journey to recruit street kids and then primary and secondary school kids from the nearby community.
“Our recruitment targeted street kids, children who weren’t going to school and those who were in the community doing semi-permanent jobs.
“That was our first crop of players for the first five years as we laid a long-term strategy to get into the schools around Masese and Walukuba East and West.”
Lubambula notes that a huge chunk of that regime led by their captain Bob Kawanda guided the team to the Nile Special Premiership in 2019 six years later after defeating Mbarara Titans at Legends.
The team arrived at the promised land in 2019 but were instead served lemons as they were relegated instantly after finishing bottom of the log with only six points.
They managed only one win against the city nemesis Jinja Hippos in a tight 14-12 victory in Walukuba and picked three losing bonus points along the way.
“It became tough because our squad was young and inexperienced, but we picked lessons,” Lubambula reminisces their debut season.
In their squad, only Wakate and Baka had ever played at the top level before.
Despite the poor show, Walukuba’s youngsters had shown some promising signs. The club’s financial situation didn’t help as bigger sharks came swimming for their talents and poached them.
“We lost 12 players out of our starting 15, which meant that we had to rebuild again,” the coach adds.
Among the players that left include current Stanbic Black Pirates’ national sevens leading try scorer Alex Aturinda and Yusuf Waiswa, Emmanuel Wakabi and Jacob Ochen to Hippos. Ochen plays for the Rugby Sevens National team as well.
The club has produced about 20 players for the men's and women's national teams. The Mileke 7's most valuable player Gift Wokorach and teammate Arafat Lubega play for the under-20 team.
Walukuba had laid a proper plan to oil its conveyor belt. After the departure of the key players and relegation, the club turned to their development side to rebuild a team.
“We focused on developing our second side because I can tell you if we didn’t have the feeder team, we would be nowhere right now,” Lubambula explains.
The club signed a memorandum of understanding with academic powerhouse Kiira College Butiiki to partner in developing players in 2019. The school provided some bursaries and support, while the club offered technical expertise.
The partnership has benefitted both sides, including Butiiki, who stunned local giants to reach the finals of the Uganda Senior Secondary Schools Sports Association rugby sevens and currently representing the country in East Africa games in Huye, Rwanda.
They extended their partnership to Uganda Christian University for their bright students to advance their education at the university as they kept advancing their careers in the varsity competitions and club rugby. But that was not enough, they needed a clear plan to take the club to the next level.
Under Kirya’s leadership, in 2021, Walukuba set out a strategic plan that will guide their activities in the short, medium and long term.
“We developed a strategic plan in 2021 that would see us qualify back to the premiership and core sevens by 2022. We achieved the core status ahead of time in 2021 and focused on the league, which we did in time.”
In the long run, the club expects to have their own home around Jinja to help it generate more revenues to run its activities. At the moment, Lubambula and other individuals in the club use their personal money to fund the club.
Their return to the league has brought some gains by attracting several sponsors, including Muluse Technical, the shirt sponsors, Galaxy Gym in Jinja and Cornifer Parker for branding and communications.
Besides the financial constraints, Walukuba has struggled to get players with big bodies to play for them. Coach Lubambula has devised a method to solve the crisis.
“We knew the club was going to struggle financially, so we focused on developing the technical part first; we wanted to produce quality players and that’s why our small boys are able to take any collusion because they are prepared right for competition.
“We have the youngest squad, smallest in terms of player size and the smallest player base.”
The coach says that the team recycled only 27 players in the 18 league matches and chose from the same pool for the sevens.
The club got a partnership from the Barbarians, a community club from the United Kingdom. The English side donated kits but talks to expand the partnership to an exchange programme and then commercial are underway.
Lubambula says that their approach has reaped in the sevens, where their kind of players fit perfectly.
“We built a very good momentum in the 15s that gave us a good starting base in the sevens that culminated to this triumph. The boys had built confidence which has been evident where we reached quarterfinals in three main cups and Challenger Cup final twice so,” Lubambula adds,
“The new kit also motivated the players by psyching them up and I think it was the right time to strike and be on the podium for the first time ever.”
Walukuba reached the quarterfinals in the Stone City and Kitgum legs as well as winning the Challenger Cup in Rujumba and Kyadondo Sevens before winning the Mileke edition.
In Tororo, the team benefited from a boardroom decision that saw the union overturn Kobs’ 31-7 win in the opening game before riding through to the finals. Their rise to glory was overshadowed by heroics and theatrics that clouded the Tororo Crest, an invitational side, who stormed the tournament with a number of players from across the border. Walukuba and Tororo Crest brought vibe, life to Tororo to underline one of the best underdog fairytales in local rugby.
The club will now be honoured to host the sevens series' final leg next week on September 2-3 in the Kyabazinga 7s. The circuit was voted the best of the seven legs last season. Overall winners, Jinja Hippos also won the Kyabazinga 7s last year.
Walukuba Barbarians RFC - Profile
Home – Abel Dhaira Stadium, Walukuba
Coach – Leonard Lubambula
Achievements – 2017 – Uganda Cup shield Silver medal
2018 – Championship winner
2021 – Champions Core 7s status
2022 – Runners-up championship
2023 - Mileke Border Sevens
Leonard Lubambula profile
Academic qualifications – Bachelor of Sports Science, Master in Sports Science & Executive Master of Business Administration,
Other roles – Sports science Lecturer, Kyambogo University, sports director The Amazima School
Achievements as a coach – National and East Africa Varsity League champions with UCU – 2010 to 2015
