She Cranes, that has a hundred percent mark test series pass, carries into these Vitality Roses series such great energy and feeling of ‘Yes we can and shall manage’ good results against the English girls when the two meet on court with the first game coming on Wednesday 5^th October. The Ugandans kicked-off with two first wins against Northern Ireland on 29th September at Blair Mayne Leisure Centre in Newtownards where they enjoyed double happiness. After the North Ireland victories, She Cranes gamed another two easy wins against Welsh Feathers to make it four wins for four matches played at their ongoing International Test Series over the weekend at House of Sport, Close Parc Morgannwg, Cardiff.

Bring on England:

The call is now on by coach Fred Mugerwa to his team to help bring down the Vitality Roses of England Netball. This will be the second time the She Cranes are facing England national team in International Series, with the first being in 2018. The Ugandans will want to overturn their previous poor results where they lost 3-0 to the English side as they prepared for the 2019 World Cup.

Series Schedule

Game 1

Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham, 5th October.

Game 2

CopperBox Arena, London, 8th October.

Game 3

Copper Box Area, London, 9th October.

On the latest ranking released Tuesday 21st December, Uganda made the first ranking change seen climbing to 6th position. This is placed the uppermost ranking in the history of the Uganda and the Netball National Team-She Cranes.

She Cranes’ beautiful performance and victory at the Pent Series and successful stint at the Africa Netball Cup increased their rating by four to 126, allowing them to move into sixth place, relegating Malawi who moved down to 7th with a rating of 125.

The same two series benefitted Samoa and Fiji who move up the rankings to 15th and 16th due to Zambia falling two places to 17th, whilst hosts of the series Namibia moved up from 25th to 22nd as a result of their performance. 

Below 22nd, there was lots of movement within the WN World Rankings with Emirates Netball (UAE) moving up 8 places to 29th and Tanzania regaining a world ranking and entering the table at 40th.

According to World Netball, 2021 has been a busy period for netball and exciting for so many teams to return to the court following the extended period of lock-downs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These include matches played at the Northern Ireland Test Series, Taini Jamison Trophy Cadbury Netball Series, Europe Netball Open Challenge, Margaret Beckford Sunshine Series, Pent Series (Namibia), Africa Netball Cup, Isle of Man Series, Battle of the Saints, Roses Reunited Series and Netball Scotland Series.

This latest update sees no change to the positions of the top five teams in the WN World Rankings, with Australia retaining 1st place, New Zealand in 2nd, England in 3rd and Jamaica and South Africa in 4th and 5th place.

Despite remaining in the top spot Australia haven’t played since the last WN World Ranking update, whilst New Zealand have played three times with a 2:1 series defeat to England seeing their rating decrease by two.  

England have played six times with two 2:1 series’ victories, over New Zealand and Jamaica, increasing their rating from 175 to 178 to cement their 3rd place spot.

Earlier this year due to COVID the WN Board decided to defer the World Rankings Annual Update from July 2021 until after the qualification date for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. 

The top six Commonwealth Games Association’s (CGA’s), as per the WN World Rankings on the 28th July 2021, were invited in October to participate in the games, but the remaining six CGA’s have until the extended date of the 31st January 2022 to qualify. 

The CGA’s ranked 7-12 after the annual update on the 31st January will then be invited in February 2022.

These decisions were made to protect the integrity of the rankings for the benefit of Member nations and provide additional time for fixtures to be played before the 2022 domestic netball season begins. 

Upon touching soil at the Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, the Uganda Netball Federation, their distinguished She Cranes team members, the team Coach and managers could not hide their happiness bagging gold and silver medals from the double header championships in Namibian Capital Windhoek, save for the challenges. 

Their great disappointment however, was, the fact that the She Cranes performances were undermined by the level of biasness by umpires they described as disturbing on their part.

“We did our best despite the number of challenges we met. You don’t know how disturbing it is to play against a team when the umpires are theirs, and indeed these girls deserve the best,” Sarah Babirye Kityo, President Uganda Netball Federation told the team’s welcome congregation at Entebbe.

“Secondly we need to train the Umpires, when we have umpires, we shall be with bargaining power at continental level.” She Cranes manager Betty Sempeebwa resounded her bosses comments saying, “We are happy that through all the challenges, changing the venue, from Outdoor to Indoor, again we managed to get medals, on behalf of She Cranes, permit me to thank our partners, our leaders, we really thank you.” She noted.

Team Captain Oyella on her side tried to down play her President’s and Managers comments on the umpires. She, being a player who knows how competition runs believes the team shall one day do more than the Namibian performances and get to the No.1 position on the continent. 

“As She Cranes we were in Namibia fighting to get No.1 position but we didn’t afford it but at least we tried our best, we promise the country that we one day shall achieve that target. We continue to thank you for great support.” Stella Oyella, She Cranes captain

The team that displayed their Gold and Silver hard earned Medals from the Pent Series and the Africa Netball championships was treated to a breakfast in Entebbe at the Café javas Victoria Mall before they headed to their welcome ceremony at Victoria Mall Gardens. 

Herbert Basasha of Cafe Javas welcomed the girls promising to join the list netball sponsors in the Country. “We have been in sports for several times, so we love sports as a company, Hon. Margret Zziwa is going to have a meeting with Hajji Omar Mandela, maybe we can also join Netball.” Basasha said.

Zziwa thanked Mandela among others for their distinguished support to Netball. “I take this opportunity to thank Hajji Omar Mandela, he has done us great, and he provided us with all eats we enjoyed here at café javas, I can’t stop thanking him. I can’t forget Parliament of Uganda, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hon. Anitah Among and the Ministry of Education and Sports indeed you done us well,”

Margret Zziwa, the Uganda Netball Trustee added; “It’s time we give back glory to God, today is a day to celebrate, we remained at home cheering you always, you made us proud, you showed the world that we are not a joke.” 

Denis Mudene Ngabirano, Ag. CEO Lotteries and Gaming regulatory Board was present to welcome and celebrate the She Cranes success and promised to work closely with the Uganda Netball in strategic and planning areas going forward. 

The two success sports stories by the girls from the pearl of Africa – Uganda or call them the Netball She Cranes have already been told, but will be retold by the team members immediately they touch soil at Entebbe international airport.

She Cranes were crowned Champions of the African Pent series 2021 in Windhoek, Namibia. They had an impeccable performance earning all the maximum points needed in the tournament.

Before defeating the hosts, the Cranes had already completed four victories against Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Kenya. The five-day Pent Series event featuring six nations paved way for yet another tournament, the Africa Netball Championship that kicked-off November 10-16 still held in the Namibian Capital.

A pent Series win gave team Uganda the courage as they headed into the African Netball Championship (ANC). At the ANC, Uganda’s only opposition was South Africa that handed them their only loss and therefore settling for Silver behind eventual winners South Africa crowned with Gold.

A loss against South Africa and a draw with Malawi (44 points all) meant that Uganda finishes second at the championships. They had beaten Malawi before at the Pent Series. 

As they plan a return journey from the Windhoek Netball outing, She Cranes dedicates their double straight performances to the creator. “We are coming back home with two, the Gold from Pent Series and Silver in Africa Netball Championship 2021. We glorify God for this performance,”