Greetings. Week 3 of the Premiership was the first time all Big 3 teams registered a bonus point win. Impis, table leaders for the first 2 weeks, lost their first away game of the season, a one-point loss in Entebbe. Mongers start the season with 3 wins from 3 and they form a trio of the last unbeaten teams alongside Pirates and Victoria Sharks. The Sharks drew a second consecutive game, and have had the most draws in the Premiership since 2024 (4). Buffaloes recovered from their Week 2 loss with a 31-00 win against Kakira Simbas.
First Half Workload at Pirates
Coming into Week 3, Pirates had scored a total of 5 points in the 160 second-half minutes they had played this season. It was the lowest second half points return among teams that made the playoffs last season. They had also been outscored 29-05 in the second half games against KOBs and Buffaloes.
In their Week 3 game against Rhinos, Pirates had a very strong first half, leading 24-03 at halftime. The second half seemed to mirror their first 2 games, with Rhinos scoring a try and conversion in the 61st minute to cut the deficit to 14 points. But Pirates recovered late in the game, scoring 3 tries in the last 6 minutes of the game to close it out 45-10.
A focus on carrying could shade some light on how much work Pirates is doing to get their tries. In the first half against Rhinos, Pirates had 41 carries in the first half to Rhinos' 25. For Pirates, that is 10 carries for every try scored in the first half. The starting locks, Eliphaz Emong and Frank Kidega, had a combined 15 carries, just 4 shy of the combined total of the rest of the Pirates forwards. The Rhinos locks combined for 4 carries in the first half, when including their second half total the 8 carries are still short of the first half carries by their Pirates counterparts.
Aside from carrying more than their opponents, Pirates gained were more likely to gain ground on their carries than their opponents. Pirates had gainline success on 25 of 41 carries in the first half, again led by Emong and Kidega with each recording gainline success 5 times. Rhinos had gainline success on 8 of their 25 first half carries.
Whereas the major carrying workload was done by the locks for Pirates, Rhinos relied heavily on the front row forwards. Emmanuel Kiyaga, Lewis Nkugwa and Edgar Luminsa combined for 13 carries in the first half, accounting for 7 of the 8 gainline successes Rhinos had. The Pirates front row players (Ariho Muhumuza, Sunday Jaguar and Umar Duff) had 10 carries, with Umar Duff scoring 2 tries from pick & go carries.
In the second half the work rate went down partly due to the intensity of the first half workload but also owing to Rhinos aggressive pursuit for a try. Stephen Alul attempted 42 passes (completing 40) in the first half compared to Ivan Kirabo's 22 (completing 21). In the second half, the scrumhalves from each team split the share of passes at 25 for each team. The first 20 minutes of the second half saw Rhinos' Pool Kalungi and Ivan Kirabo combine for 23 of the 25 pass attempts by a Rhinos scrumhalf in the second half, compared to 10 from Pirates' Alul and Conrad Wanyama in that time frame. In this period Rhinos made 21 carries to Pirates' 3, resulting in their sole try of the game scored by Kiyaga.
The last 20 minutes of the game belonged to Pirates, with Wanyama attempting 21 passes to Kalungi's 2, including 12 passes in the Rhinos Half and 22-metre areas. The majority of ball carries in the final quarter were made by the Pirates loose forwards.
Possession origin of tries
This particular parameter is easier to capture for broadcast games, as was previously done at Rugby Africa Cup. However, some component of this was captured for the KOBs vs Hippos game, the first time it was being done for a non-broadcast game.
Cranes Chronometer Week 3
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Chasing History
🌟Faragi Odugo has scored 5 tries in the first 3 games of the Premiership. Having started 2 games and come on as a substitute in Week 1, his try per 80 is 2.18. The last two players to open the season scoring in the first 3 games of the season were Timothy Kisiga (Pirates) and Norbert Okeny (Heathens), both achieving that feat in 2023 until Week 5.
🌟Pirates have won 4 consecutive games against Heathens (3 in the Premiership, 1 in the Uganda Cup). In Week 4, they will look to better their 2017-18 return when they beat Heathens in round 2 of the 2016/17 Premiership, in the 2017 Uganda Cup final, and home and away in the 2017/18 Premiership. Heathens will look to avoid a fifth consecutive loss to one team, a feat that has not happened to the Kyadondo-based side in a long time.
🌟Since the inception of the playoff format, Pirates have played 35 games (more than any other team, thanks to two Grand Final appearances) and Saturday's fixture will be their 36th game. They have won 29 games (82.86% win rate) and will be looking for a 30th win since 2024. The nearest team to them is Heathens on 24 wins in that time frame, followed by Hippos (23) and KOBs (22).
Ceteris. Paribus.
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