Rugby Africa President Urges Uganda to Shift Focus from Football to Rugby

Herbert Mensah, the president of Rugby Africa and a member of the World Rugby executive board, has called on Ugandan authorities to rethink their sporting priorities, suggesting a greater investment in rugby over football.

"You can spend half of the taxpayers’ money on football, but you won’t win the World Cup," Mensah stated as quoted by The Observer, arguing that targeted funding for rugby could yield faster and more significant international success for the nation.

His comments came after the 17th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Rugby Africa, held at the Kabira Country Club in Kampala on Friday.

The high-level meeting brought together delegates from 32-member unions to make key decisions for the sport's future on the continent.

Mensah advised countries like Uganda to follow South Africa's model, aligning investment with realistic prospects for global achievement.

This advice comes as Uganda has allocated at least Shs 508 billion to the sports sector for the 2025/26 financial year, with a substantial portion, over Shs 465 billion, dedicated to football infrastructure for the upcoming 2025 CHAN and 2027 AFCON tournaments, which Uganda will co-host.

The Rugby Africa president pointed to the success of South Africa's Springboks, who have won the Rugby World Cup four times (1995, 2007, 2019, and 2023), more than any other nation.

"The way they dismantled Ireland, it was like men and children; they went to France and dismantled the French as though it were men and children. So South Africa are doing something right," Mensah remarked, attributing their dominance to sustained investment in infrastructure and development systems.

He highlighted South Africa's 10-year plan, which aims to integrate over 300 schools into a structured talent identification program.

Mensah challenged Uganda's heavy concentration on football, suggesting the country's chances of joining the global elite are much slimmer compared to rugby, where the competitive landscape is less crowded.

Despite Uganda's current modest standing in global rugby, Mensah expressed optimism. He noted that 90 percent of the national team consists of locally based players, which he sees as a strong indicator of the domestic league's health and potential.

In a significant development for Ugandan rugby, Godwin Kayangwe, president of the Uganda Rugby Union (URU), was elected to the Rugby Africa executive committee.

Kayangwe affirmed the URU's commitment to accelerating the sport's growth through regional partnerships, stating it is "not unrealistic to envision three or four African countries qualifying for and competing strongly at the Rugby World Cup."

The AGM also approved several constitutional amendments aimed at improving governance and inclusion. According to Coralie Van Den Berg, World Rugby's regional partnerships manager for Africa, the new constitution mandates gender balance on the 11-member executive committee, requiring at least five members of either gender.

Van Den Berg described the revised constitution as being "grounded in unity, inclusion and diversity," with a clear push to promote women's rugby across Africa.

Other changes included updating terminology, clarifying key definitions, and formally introducing two "Independent Member" positions to the executive committee to enhance professional oversight.

Furthermore, the regional structure was reorganised from the previous "Anglophone" and "Francophone" divisions into "North" and "South" groupings, aligning Rugby Africa's framework with World Rugby's global model.

In other election results, Kevin Venkiah, president of the Mauritius Rugby Union, was elected as the new treasurer of Rugby Africa.