Greetings. The weekend's games have been pushed by a week, to honour the fallen Ronnie Kayondo of Eagles RFC (May he continue resting in peace). This has created a nationwide bye for all rugby clubs. It has been decided to create a report for the games played up to Week 5 in the Men's Premiership. Usually a mid-season report would come after Week 6 (54.5% of the season played) but after Week 6 play the time might not be available to compile something of this magnitude.
The items covered will centre around scoring mainly, and where possible a comparison with the previous seasons at this same stage.
The Log
First off are the standings. The URU standings traditionally cover the columns of games played (GP), wins (W), draws (D), losses (L), points difference (PD), bonus points (BP) and log points (PTS) and can be found here. Some of this "common knowledge" has been skipped in my table, and I've instead included columns on tries for (TF), tries against (TA) and try differential (TD).
The Halftime Log
The next and final log concerns halftime scores. The particular columns for this include lead (whether a team is in the lead at halftime), tied (whether the scores are level at halftime), trailing (whether a team is in a deficit at halftime), and then the traditional PF, PA, PD, BP and log points. Bonus points by halftime is of interest because it can show how much work a team has put in at halftime to either guarantee a victory or to put themselves in a good enough position to overturn a deficit in the second half.
Scoring
A comparison of scoring across the first 5 game weeks of 2023, 2024 and 2025.
At this stage of the tournament, there is an increase in points per game and tries per game compared to 2024 and 2023.
Below is a breakdown of all the points scored up to Week 5.
Each club's points breakdown is available below; tries, conversions (CGs), penalty goals (PGs), drop goals (DGs) and penalty tries (Pen Tries).
Tries Per Game
An illustration of the number of tries scored per match. Games for each team are categorised as to whether the team scored 0 tries, 1 try, 2 tries, 3 tries or 4+ tries. The clubs are ranked from most tries scored to least number of tries scored. 9 of the 12 clubs have had at least one game where they have scored 4 or more tries.
Heathens has scored 4 or more tries in each of their games played so far this season. On the other hand, Warriors have failed to score a try in 3 out of 5 games.
For the tries conceded table, teams are ranked from fewest tries conceded to most tries conceded. 5 clubs have had one game where they have not conceded a try. Hippos and KOBs have conceded the fewest tries (07) at this stage of the season. Hippos, KOBs and Pirates are the only clubs to have conceded 1 try or less in 3 of their 5 games this season. Walukuba, Warriors and Elgon Wolves have each conceded 4 or more tries on 3 occasions.
Rate of Try Scoring/ Conceding
The rate of try scoring/conceding is computed with reference to the number of games played (or duration of the game). All games are fixed at 80 minutes; for simplicity, and most importantly not all games have the accurate duration post-80th minute recorded. There have been 197 tries scored up to Week 5, for a scoring rate of 1 try every 12 minutes and 10 seconds of a game.
In the graph below teams are mapped according to tries scored vs tries conceded.
Scoring Margins
The margins (difference in points between teams) is only taken for fulltime scores.
10 games had a margin of 10 points or fewer. Heathens vs Elgon Wolves had the widest margin (77-point gap between the two teams at full time). As the only draw of the season, the Buffaloes vs Walukuba game had the narrowest margin (12-12 at full time).
Each team's winning and losing margins are displayed below. The ranking is according to their log positions.
Individual Points Scorers
128 different players have scored points in the 2025 NSRP so far. The embedded list availed below from Datawrapper makes it possible for one to search for a particular player or club of interest.
As a note, there have been conflicting reports on the points (and tries) scored by some players; William Nkore, Andrew Odhiambo and Michael Wokorach. The data is harvested from the URU match day forms, which are usually signed on by team managers from both teams playing that particular game. Therefore, changes to be made have to be agreed upon by the URU and the disputing club/player. Until the corrections for those particular allocations come through, the mentioned players will continue on the points they have been currently assigned.
William Nkore leads all points scorers on 69 points. Michael Wokorach is the top try scorer on 8 tries.
Further exploration has been done into which positions on the rugby pitch contribute the most tries. The 1-15 positions have been reduced to hookers (2), props (1 & 3), locks (4 & 5), loose forwards (6, 7 & 8), scrum-halves (9), flyhalves (10), wingers (11 & 14), centres (12 & 13) and fullbacks (15). Further consideration is given to substitutes, whether they are forward substitutes or backline substitutes.
This only considers the player’s starting position assigned at the beginning of the game; in-game changes or traditional positions of a player are not considered. For example, Emmanuel Kiyaga is a hooker but he has started 4 games as a prop and scored ties as a starting prop on two occasions. Therefore, those two tries account for contributions by props, not hookers.
Loose forwards have scored the most tries (43) followed closely by wingers (40).
Goal Success Rate
For goal success rate, only place kicks are considered. Drop goals are not taken into account because quite rarely are missed drop goal attempts recorded in the match day forms. Of the 4 games we have featured this season, 2 of them had drop goal attempts that were unsuccessful and they didn't show in the form. 35 different payers have made a place kick attempt at goal.
Similar to the Points scorers table, this goal success rate table is also interactive and viewers can search for particular players/clubs.
Amongst players with at least 10 attempts at goal, Shakim Sembusi (Walukuba) has the best goal success rate (90.9%) while Joseph Aredo (KOBs) leads those with at least 20 attempts at goal (80%). Aredo and WIlliam Nkore (Pirates) are the only players with 20+ successful attempts at goal.
Ceteris. Paribus.
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