Both sides wanted to draw inspiration from their fallen former coach Robert Seguya to whom the match was dedicated but it seems his spirits chose the Hippos on the day.
The Jinja Hippos put up a strong performance to overcome Toyota Buffaloes 38-17 to end their bad run in the Nile Special Rugby Premiership.
Both sides wanted to draw inspiration from their fallen former coach Robert Seguya to whom the match was dedicated but it seems his spirits chose the Hippos on the day.
The Hippos showed their intent from the word go as Denis Etwau, Jackson Opio and Andrew Odhiambo tries put them 19-10 ahead at the break but needed some strong resilience and discipline to keep the charging Buffaloes at bay in the second half.
Coach Saidi Atibu says that his team had to put more training hours on their shaky defence to start winning games.
“We were conceding almost immediately after scoring and that cost us a lot,” Atibu told Pulse Sports.
Smart defending
“Before we were attacking more but the defence element was working. We are now getting smart in defence rather than going physical
“We were losing to the [three] big teams but the rest as well so, that was a wake-up call that we needed to take the games seriously.”
The result lifted Hippos to fifth on the table with ten points, the same number separating them from Impis currently in fourth. Atibu hopes they pick some inspiration from the result and build on it going forward.
“This win has to be the start for us going forward We’re going to build more on the defensive system so that we can dominate on both fronts,” he added.
They cross Jinja City next weekend to play Walukuba Barbarians in the first official derby in the premiership.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)