Founded 2010 Most recent
champion(s) Zimbabwe Number of teams 3 | No. of teams 3 Related
competitions TV partner SuperSport | |
Country Kenya
Uganda
Zimbabwe | ||
The Victoria Cup is a rugby union competition in Africa. Three teams, Kenya, Uganda (The Rugby Cranes) and Zimbabwe (The Sables) compete for this Cup in a format similar to that of the Tri Nations. The competition is administered by Confederation of African Rugby (CAR).
Contents
Just as the Bledisloe Cup (Australia and New Zealand), Freedom Cup (New Zealand and South Africa) and Mandela Challenge Plate (Australia and South Africa) have been subsumed into the Tri Nations and as the Calcutta Cup (England and Scotland) is now part of the Six Nations, so the pre-existing Elgon Cup between Kenya and Uganda will, from now on, be played for within this new competition.
The competition is well named; two of the competing nations include part of Lake Victoria within their borders whilst the other can claim Victoria Falls as one of its major geographical features. The name also looks to the future; Zambia could possibly be included if the quality of rugby in that country could be raised to its 1960s-1970s level (Zambia shares the Victoria Falls with Zimbabwe) and Tanzania are also making progress in their domestic competition (Tanzania is the other country that shares Lake Victoria).
Basic structure
Each team plays each other team twice, one at home and one away; points are awarded to each team after each match depending on the result. The winner of the competition is the team with the most points after all six matches have been played. If teams end level on points the first tiebreaker is points difference, followed by number of tries during the series. If teams are still level, then the competition will be shared.
The basic points system is four points for a win, two points for a draw and zero points for a loss. Bonus points may also be earned in any match; the Attacking bonus point is earned by scoring four or more tries in the match (regardless of the final result) and the Defending bonus point for losing by seven points or less. Thus a winning team will earn either four or five points, a losing team will collect between zero and two points and a draw can earn either two or three points .
History of Competition between the nations
There is a long history of encounters between Kenya and Uganda dating back even before the first official meeting between the two sides in 1958. Frequent but irregular matches have been played between Uganda and Kenya since the early 1930s. The list below is therefore very far from complete in regard to these two nations.
Matches between Zimbabwe and the other two nations are a much more recent innovation, Zimbabwe first playing the Kenya national side at the end of their tour to Kenya in 1981. Their first match against Uganda was in 2002 when Uganda travelled to Zimbabwe to play a game as part of the host nations warm-up for its qualifying games for the 2003 Rugby World Cup (RWC) in Australia. It was to be the first time that the Zimbabwean selectors could mix their locally based amateur players with professionals based abroad.
Based on the information below one would expect Zimbabwe to be by far the more powerful side, followed by Kenya and trailing a distant third, Uganda. However the state of rugby in the three countries has changed since the majority of these fixtures were played. Zimbabwe have been in a long shallow state of decline since the halcyon days when Southern Rhodesia were a match for some of the best British Lions touring sides of the mid 20th Century; political unrest has led to a decline in the domestic game and also the exodus of many of the better players seeking greener pastures in the professional leagues of neighbouring South Africa. Rugby in Uganda similarly suffered during the reign of Idi Amin, despite the fact that he was a keen rugby player himself, but recent years have seen a solid growth of the game at all levels. Unlike Kenya, Uganda have focussed on the 15-a-side version of the game; Kenya's recent international success at seven-a-side rugby has led to a slight decline in the full version of the game.
The IRB World rankings at the beginning of the 2010 tournament saw the teams remarkably closely matched; Zimbabwe were ranked 47th in the world with 46.91 points, Kenya were 44th with 49.68 points and Uganda were just one place ahead at 43rd with 49.71 points, placing the three teams 5th, 6th and 7th in Africa.