Resilience Rugby Football Club suffered a dismal 49-0 defeat at the hands of Thousand Hills during the final of this year’s national rugby championship last weekend at Gatenga Youth Center ground. The win handed Nyamirambo-based Thousand Hills their first league title only on the second attempt while the defeat ended what would have been a fairytale run for debutants, Resilience, who dominated the Southern League. The Rusizi-based side spent majority of the game on the back-foot, stressed to compete with a rampant Thousand Hills, who came through the much-tougher Kigali Central League that also has the record eight-time champions, Remera Buffaloes. However; speaking to Saturday Sport, Resilience coach/player Donatien Ufitimfura said, “We were all disappointed with the manner in which we lost, but we have to look at the positives and look forward.” He urged his teammates as well their fans not to lose hope but instead work harder to be able to make a strong comeback next season. “It was the first time to reach the final, so for a team formed just one year ago, that’s a great achievement. This shows how we are improving day-by-day, we only need to gain more experience by playing more games.” He added, “I believe we can still reach this level the next season. As the coach/player I was impressed with the over role performance of the team during the entire championship. It shows that we can do even better, we need to correct a few mistakes which we shall be doing during the break.” Resilience Rugby Football Club joined the Rwandan Rugby Federation in October 2015. It was formed by Ufitimfura, a Social Sciences student at the Teacher Training College (TTC) Mururu. Ufitimfura picked the idea with other schoolmates when Friends of Rwandan Rugby (FoRR), an NGO promoting rugby in schools in the country, held an 8-week introductory sessions and workshops at TTC Mururu in May, 2015. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
