Rugby is not a new sport in Rwanda yet it has struggled to make a breakthrough as a mainstream sport or at least become one of the most popular among the locals—not even in schools.

Nonetheless, over the years, the sport has produced some good players who have represented the country in various regional, continental and international competitions.

In this issue, we profile Victorien Umuhire, one of those players, who have been privileged enough to play for their country.

Umuhire is a flanker for the Nyamirambo-based Lion de Fer Rugby Club and the national team, Silverbacks. Umuhire, commonly known as Bebe by his peers, was born January 24, 1989 to Didas Hategekimana and La Degonde Mukagahutu in Nyamiramba sector, Nyarugenge District, City of Kigali.

He is the last born in a family of three boys.  He attended Rugarama Primary School before joining College St. Andre in Nyamirambo, Lycee de Nyanza and later APACE Nyamirambo where he obtained a diploma in Computer Science. Currently he’s a receptionist at Dynapharm, Kimironko.

Umuhire grew up in Nyamirambo, a City of Kigali suburb and he says, "We had a good upbringing, for, we were showed love and cared for very well by our parents.” Unfortunately he lost his father in 2001 and his mother three years later.

Yannick Sangwa, a childhood friend of Umuhire and teammate at Lion de Fer, says, "He (Umuhire) knows how to keep it on the inside but sometimes he can lose his temper all of a sudden because of the memories about his deceased parents.”

Joining rugby

Umuhire started playing rugby in 2004, but before that, he used to play football for the Foundation Sport pour La Paix team at Mumena stadium.

According to him, it was during those days when playing football along with about 30 other kids in the neighbourhood that they were approached by a one De la Paix Hategekimana, the coach at Lion de Fer, who told them, "Come and I teach you a new sport.”

They were taken to the field near the Kadhafi mosque (Kwa Kadhafi) in Nyamirambo. Umuhire and others like Sangwa, Sixbert Nyirimpeta and Saidi Kayiranga embraced the ‘new sport’ with open hands and since that time, as they say, the rest is history.

Most people are turned away from rugby because of the physical contact aspect of it, but according to Umuhire, Hategekimana first introduced them to the rules and regulations that govern the sport as well as other skills—by the time they came to the physical part of the game, it was nothing new.

The 25-year-old Umuhire says, "It’s different from nowadays where kids come to play and start full contact straight away and when one gets hurt, they never come back.”

By the time he was introduced to rugby, he was in vacation after completing his primary school; he later joined Nyamirambo-based College Saint-Andre in 2007 for senior one before joining Lycee de Nyanza on a sports scholarship.

High School rugby

His first tournament was the Muhanga 7s while playing for College St. Andre. There were various schools like Apred Ndera, APADE Kimihurura, ETO Gitarama and St. Joseph Kabgayi.

"Our school reached the final but lost to Benjamin Makombe-led APADE-Kimihurura. However, the schools that had key players like St. Josephs Kabgayi which had Jimmy Adams Mugabo and G.S Apred Ndera which had Vincent Kamali didn’t progress,”  he recalls.

Currently, Adams Mugabo is the Rwanda Rugby Federation’s Chief Executive Officer and coach of league side 1000 Hills RFC, while Kamali is the captain of reigning league champions, Remera Buffaloes.

 From College Saint-Andre, Umuhire joined Lycee de Nyanza in 2009 to 2011 where he played in domestic competitions. He played for Ecole Technique Mukingi in the East Africa post primary inter-schools games (FEASSA games) 2013 hosted in Lira, Uganda.

Having learnt his trade in school, Umuhire urges more schools to embrace rugby and develop their own players, something he believes is the only way the sport is going to grow, expand and become popular in Rwanda like it is in neighbouring countries like Kenya and Uganda.

He says, "When a school brings in players from other schools to make a team, it not only weakens schools that have groomed those players but also the new team (school) if it has no proper development programme won’t go far.”

Playing for club and country

Umuhire started out playing as a center or blind-wing but currently he plays at flank.  Sangwa says, "I played alongside Umuhire and we really understood each other, it’s a loss he plays in the forwards now.”

In previous years, the national league was very competitive with different clubs vying for the title, now the standards have dropped and sometimes the league is not even held due to lack of sponsors.

And for Umuhire, it’s a worrying situation, "It’s like we have regressed these days, it’s like there’s one team (Remera Buffaloes) to beat.”

The 25-year-old first represented the country in the national school’s select side in 2012 at the Safaricom Sevens, and he recalls the experience.

"It was extraordinary, the furthest I had been to was Kabale in western Uganda, but on this occasion, we crossed two boarders and travelled for one and a half days. It was an adventure for most of us on that team.”

 The Rwandan side made the final but lost 24-5 to a far superior Kakamega side. Adams Mugabo, who was a player at Lion de Fer when Umuhire started there says, "Umuhire impressed a lot, that’s why he That same year (2012) Umuhire made his debut for the senior national team in the Makerere 10s. He debuted for the Silverbacks 15s side in the Africa Rugby Division 2 tournament held in Kigali and it attracted three team namely; DR Congo, Burundi and the hosts Rwanda.

Despite being selected in the provisional squad, Umuhire missed out on the just concluded Kowloon 7s Rugby Fest in Hong Kong due to an injury he picked during a league game against the Remera Buffaloes.