INSIGHT INTO A UGANDAN RUGBY PLAYER – HELEN BUTEME

I’m Ugandan and play rugby in Uganda although it is a really small sport here and not many women play. We just have 4 senior women’s clubs. However, I and others are trying to change that. Women’s rugby first started in Uganda in 2003. I was the pioneer 🙂 I started off by playing touch rugby with a men’s club on their non-training days and with time got other girls to join me. A couple of months later, the men lured us into the addictive world of contact rugby and the rest is history. Literally.

In 2005, I and a couple of other like minded individuals formed the Uganda Women’s Rugby Association (UWRA) and I served on it for a couple of years as the secretary. UWRA is affiliated to the Uganda Rugby Union (URU) which is affiliated to the African rugby body (CAR) and to IRB. We play both 7 aside and 15 aside rugby in Uganda as well as 10 aside rugby. I play for both the 7s and 15s national teams. In 2009, our women’s national team (nickname Lady Cranes) qualified as Africa’s number 2 to the women’s rugby world cup in Dubai – I captained the team.

In addition to playing, I have experience as a rugby referee in Uganda and have officiated (both as a centre referee and TJ) men’s first division club matches in Uganda. However, I stopped active officiating about 3 years ago to focus on coaching and playing. I hold an IRB level 2 coaching certificate and coach a women’s club side as well as the under 19 women’s national team (although they have not had any international engagements up to date) and the under 16 boys national team (they played a friendly against a school side from England last year and won). I’m a patron of the Tag Rugby Trust organisation (http://tagrugbytrust.co.uk/) and I am actively involved as a volunteer in the development of women’s rugby in Uganda. I have a facebook page going for women’s rugby in Uganda (https://www.facebook.com/groups/216904778327217/ ). Like I said, we are a small sport in Uganda and right now there are just 4 clubs in the 15 aside league. Right now I am in Sweden pursuing studies for a couple of months and play for Stockholm Exiles.

Cheers,
Helen