Greetings. The penultimate round of the regular season saw the third walkover of the Men's Premiership. In the games played, Pirates returned to the top of the Premiership with a 71-07 win over Hippos in a rematch of last year's Grand Final. The 11-try win was their second game scoring 10+ tries. Buffaloes dropped to second after losing to Victoria Sharks, 18-20. Walukuba lost to Heathens 20-25, marking the fifth game they have lost after leading at halftime. Rhinos registered their third win of the season, as they secured a bonus point win against Warriors, 29-11.
KOBs moved to second, after defeating Mongers 24-11 in their eighth consecutive win.
Entering this fixture, KOBs had utilised the following props as starters in their first 9 games; Blair Ayebazibwe (9 starts as a loosehead), Collin Kimbowa (6 starts as a tighthead) and Adnan Mutebi (3 starts as a tighthead). Against Mongers, Ayebazibwe was not in the matchday lineup as Mike Otto started at loosehead and Kimbowa made his 7th start of the season at tighthead. Their Mongers opposing starters were Braven Bukenya (in his 5th start at loosehead) and Khalid Bogere (8th start at tight-head).
Much as props rarely play the entire 80 minutes - Ayebazibwe, who up to Week 9 was the only prop among the Big 3 clubs to start all games was averaging 57.89 minutes per game - the teams utilised their respective pair of starting props for the whole game.
KOBs had a slight edge managing to win more of their scrums feeds than Mongers did on their own. However, in forcing scrum penalties, KOBs dominated their opponents. With Otto and Kimbowa in the front row, KOBs won 6 scrum penalties against Mongers, including 2 penalties on Mongers' own scrum feeds.
The scrum penalty count is the area of discipline where KOBs fared better than their opponents. When eliminating scrum penalties, Mongers only conceded 9 penalties compared to KOBs' 20. 8 of KOBs' 21 penalties conceded came in their Own 22m area, whereas Mongers only conceded 2 penalties in their Own 22m area. Compared to the Week 9 game against Victoria where Mongers opted to go for goal on most of their second half penalties, in this game Shakim Sembusi only opted to go for poles on 4 occasions despite KOBs conceding 15 penalties in the space between their Own try line and the halfway line - in zones with the expected goal success rate averaging 63.11%.
KOBs won by a margin of 13 points.
Cranes Chronometer
Possession Origin Of Tries
Playoff Permutations
🌟The final playoff teams were confirmed; Pirates, KOBs, Buffaloes, Heathens, Victoria Sharks, Mongers, Impis and Walukuba Barbarians. Pirates and KOBs are assured of top 3 finishes, Heathens and Buffaloes can't slide below the fourth seed, while Walukuba are assured of finishing in eighth position.
🌟Victoria Sharks, Mongers and Impis all have a chance to finish fifth, which would put them in the quarterfinal path of the fourth-placed team and the semi-final path of the top seed. Victoria travel to Makerere to face Impis, their 2025 Uganda Cup meeting ending 24-19 in favour of Impis. Mongers host Heathens, a team they have not beaten since March 2018.
The Most Important Relegation Permutation
🌟Kakira Simbas host Warriors in a bottom-of-the-table clash. It is the furthest point in the season that 2 teams without a win have met. Kakira have awarded a walkover for their last 2 Kampala assignments. To manage their financial situation, the expectation is that they would target an outcome that hands them a matchup against Hippos in the relegation playoffs. This would guarantee a sub-15 km journey for their relegation away fixture, one which they can't forego for two reasons; the human instinct of survival, and the benefit of a short distance!
🌟Warriors on the other hand have fulfilled their travel obligatons better, making the trip to Jinja to play Hippos in Week 5, despite awarding a walkover for their Entebbe trip the following week. On the financial side, a relegation matchup against Rhinos makes more sense as they would stay within Kampala. However, judging from the strength Rhinos has demonstrated recently, they would look to avoid the Kyambogo-based side in the relegation playoffs.
🌟The last 2 teams to finish in the 12th position at the end of the regular season have been relegated; Impis 2024 and Elgon Wolves 2025.
Chasing History
🌟The past two regular season leaders, Heathens (2024) and Pirates (2025) ended on 47 points and 49 points respectively. Pirates are on 42 points, and look to become the first back-to-back regular season leaders with a win in Week 11. Pirates have a points differential of +273 in 2026, ahead of the 2024 Heathens (ended the regular season on +258) but still behind the 2025 Pirates (ended regular season on +338).
🌟Rasul Abiriga leads the top points scorer charts with 136 points, with 1 regular season game to go. In the past two seasons, the points leader at the end of the regular season had amassed 140+ points; Robin Odrua concluded the 2024 regular season with 143 points and in 2025 William Nkore had 141 points.
🌟Daniel Otim leads the top try scorer leaderboard on 8 tries. Andrew Odhiambo is the only player to finish the regular season with 10 or more tries, scoring 11 in 2024 with Hippos. The 2025 regular season concluded with Joseph Oyet having scored 8 tries, the most of any player.
Erratum
There is a discrepancy in the reported score from the Week 9 fixture between Walukuba and KOBs. The reported score on social media from the accounts of Uganda Rugby, KOBs Rugby and Fat Cats Media was 57-17 in favour of KOBs. However, the official match report records a score of 55-15. The matchday report omits a successful conversion by Rasul Abiriga (confirmed by the KOBs Team Managers). This would move the Week 9 performance of Abiriga to 17 points and a goal success rate of 6/9 (66.67%). For the season, that would bring him to 136 points and a season goal success rate of 48/66 (72.73%). On the overall table, KOBs now have a points differential of +248 and Walukuba drop to -1.
Ceteris. Paribus.
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