We cannot afford to be relegated - Seguya

The Uganda Rugby Cranes lost their opening match to Namibia 55-6 before falling 38-22 to arch-rivals Kenya in early July. Both those matches were away, but they will close the competition with three home fixtures during which they will need to salvage some pride.

"We need to wake up because we are in a terrible position and need to carry ourselves over and above to win games. We need to win our remaining three games convincingly against Tunisia, Morocco and Zimbabwe," Seguya said.

"No team walks on to the pitch to suffer defeat. But we have lost our opening two games and this should act as a learning curve to the players to fight back strongly and prove a point that they deserve to don the national team jersey," explained Seguya, a former national team skipper.

Rugby Cranes centre Michael Okorach, who captained the Uganda sevens team at the recent World Cup in the USA, told KweséESPN that he is eager to fight for the national team, but will need to be declared fit.

"I injured my shoulder during the World Cup. Let me see how it gets on after training in the next few days," Okorach said on Tuesday.

Either way, head coach John Duncan will have to do without instrumental players Marvin Odong and Lawrence Ssebuliba who are already absent through injury. Ssebuliba broke his arm against Namibia while Odong had surgery on his nose and jaw following a heavy collision during the East African derby against Kenya.