3 Black Panthers feature for Pirates 2

Last year, I (Helen) played 60 minutes for Pirates 2 on the wing against Rams in the shield Uganda Cup semifinal. We won that game and I went ahead to warm the bench in the final (that we lost to Boks). This year, I featured for Pirates 2 (on the wing and at scrumhalf) in a loss to KK Lions and after that game Brenda Kayiyi and Charlotte Mudoola also signed for Pirates 2. Yesterday the 3 of us played in the game against Buffaloes 2. Charlotte at scrumhalf, Brenda in the centres and I at flyhalf although I moved to fullback in the second half and when Charlotte was subbed I switched to scrumhalf. Once again we lost but we had lots of fun, except when Charlotte got punched in the face in the second half - although she wanted to continue playing she could not see out of one eye so she had to be substituted.

People think we are nuts to play against guys (we probably are) but we need to play in the shield if we are to up our game. We do not get enough game time and we do not get much of a challenge playing against the Thunderbirds. On the other hand, the guys are faster and stronger (but not too big such that we cannot handle them) so we have to raise our game to match theirs and include brain power as well. We have a game against Boks coming up on April 10th and we are so looking forward to it.