The National rugby team-silverbacks started training at the weekend for the annual Hima-Makerere 10 aside tournament that will take place in Kampala from November 7-8.

Although it is supposed to be a club competition, the Rugby federation has decided to send the national team so that players from other clubs can have a chance of taking part.

"It is indeed a club tournament, but we asked the organisers to allow us field the national team,” the federation’s Vice President Gerald Nsenga said.

The team will be training three times a week until their departure on November 5.

Seventeen teams from Rwanda, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the hosts Uganda will be vying for honors at the 16th edition of the competition.

The winners of the tourney will pocket Rwf4m while the first runners-up will bag Rwf2m courtesy of tournament sponsors Hima cement factory.

Last year, Heathens won the event after beating Kenya’s Mwamba 14-5.

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