2026 Premiership Week 9 Review: Kicking In Entebbe

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Greetings. Week 9 of the Rugby Premiership had all 6 fixtures played following the walkover in Week 8. Pirates scored 13 tries against Warriors in an 83-03 win. Timothy Kisiga scored 23 points, the most points of any player in a game this season. In Entebbe, Shakim Sembusi matched Kisiga's feat (and his own previous feat in Week 1) with 23 points of his own against Victoria Sharks, to lead Mongers to a 23-20 win. In Jinja, all 3 hosting teams lost their respective games; Hippos lost to Heathens 17-41 at Ruck Yard Sports, Walukuba were defeated 17-55 at Tata Owen Sports Grounds in Walukuba West, and Kakira Simbas lost 19-26 to Rhinos at Kakira Community Grounds. Table leaders, Buffaloes, had to overcome a first-half deficit to score 4 tries past Impis for a 24-07 win at Kyadondo, and secure a seventh-straight win. 

Mongers vs Victoria Sharks

In Entebbe, both teams went into the game having already secured playoff rugby. However, the push for higher seeding is still on. Kicking, both at goal and in-play proved pivotal during the game, considering previous commentary on the size of the pitch in Entebbe (above, here, here, here , here, here, and here); even Mongers social media made a weighed in on the comments fans were making about their rugby grounds.

In the first action of the game, Humphrey Asiligwa's kick-off didn't cross the Mongers 10m line, resulting in a scrum for Mongers at the halfway line, with Mongers retaining possession and having the first crack at attack. Victoria Sharks made 2 more kick-offs in the first half, with one going straight into touch, yielding another scrum for Mongers. Overall, 3 of Victoria Sharks' 8 kick-offs resulted in a scrum to Mongers due to the ball not crossing the 10 or going straight into touch. Mongers' had 5 kick-offs, with 2 going straight into touch but the team managed to retain possession on 1 kick-off in the second half. Victoria also struggled on the 22-metre drop, with both kicks going straight into touch, resulting in them ceding ground to Mongers.

In open play kicking, Mongers had more retention success on their clearance kicks than Victoria Sharks. Mongers made 22 kicks in open play, retaining possession on 3 occasions. The Mongers try resulted after a Sembusi clearance kick was successfully caught by Victoria Sharks but the subsequent pass to Humphrey Asiligwa was knocked on and Sembusi recovered the ball to sprint and score a try. The Sharks made 14 kicks in play, retaining possession once after a Mongers' knock-on while receiving the aerial ball.

 

In the goal-kicking battle, Victoria's Paul Mutsami had a 100% goal kicking success on his 4 attempts at goal. However, Mongers made more attempts and cumulatively helped deliver the result. Shakim Sembusi made only 1 of his 3 attempts in the first half (1/3). However, in the second half he had a 5/6 goal success rate (83.33%) to record his third 20+ point game of the season.

Mutsami had an expected success rate of 89.24% considering the favourable location of his kicks, and he still managed 100% success, exceeding his expectation by 10.76%. Sembusi fell short of his 71.85% expectation by 5.18%, ending the game with a 66.67% success rate. 

Cranes Chronometer



Possession Origin of Tries



 




Playoff Permutations

🌟Impis secured a playoff spot following Hippos' loss to Heathens, despite Impis also losing their game. 

🌟The fifth-seeded team faces the fourth-seeded team in the playoffs, which would be statistically the weakest team of the top 4. Mongers overcame a 12-point deficit to defeat Victoria Sharks and create a 4-point gap on them in the race for the 5th seed. Mongers are on 29 points, followed by Victoria on 25, Impis on 22 and Walukuba on 19. Impis can still finish fifth if they win their remaining games and both Mongers and Victoria lose their remaining games without a bonus point.

🌟After their seventh consecutive win, Buffaloes maintained their 2-point lead atop the Premiership log. With 2 games remaining, they are guaranteed to finish no lower than fifth, even if they lost all their remaining games without a bonus point. A win in Week 10 guarantees a top-3 finish, irrespective of how other results go for the other teams. Buffaloes have not finished in the top 3 since the 2013 Premiership, when they lost the Grand Final to Heathens.

Chasing History

🌟With two game-weeks left, there are only two teams yet to register a first win of the season. Both Kakira Simbas and Warriors have lost each of their first 9 games. Kakira Simbas has earned 2 losing bonus points (Week 7 vs Walukuba and Week 9 vs Rhinos) whereas Warriors has none. If both teams lose in Week 10, their Week 11 meeting will be the furthest in the season that 2 win-less teams have met.

🌟The leader of the top try scorer chart has changed hands for a fourth straight week. Daniel Otim (Buffaloes) takes charge after touching down twice in Week 9. The Top Try scorer after each game week:

  • Week 4: 05 tries - Faragi Odugo (KOBs) & Aaron Tukei (Buffaloes)
  • Week 5: 06 - Aaron Tukei (Buffaloes)
  • Week 6: 06 - Aaron Tukei (Buffaloes)
  • Week 7: 06 - Aaron Tukei, Moses Watmon & Daniel Otim (all Buffaloes)
  • Week 8: 07 - Moses Watmon (Buffaloes)
  • Week 9: 08 - Daniel Otim (Buffaloes)

Ceteris. Paribus.


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