By Trevor Mathias Ssegawa

Visiting rugby teams have learned to dread a sports ground in Makerere University called the Graveyard. Situated behind Nsibirwa Hall, the grounds have for three decades swallowed the ambitions of giants. This ground is the home to the Makerere Impis Rugby Club and has become a place synonymous with beautiful and brutal memories for the Makerere rugby lovers and fans.

The Impis Rugby Club, once buried in the second division, has clawed its way back to the premiership and done the unthinkable. They have defeated league favourites and have topped the table for a good part of the season. 

This is the story of how a university club became one of the most loved teams in Ugandan Rugby, how it fell from grace, and how it rose again with an attitude that has the entire rugby fraternity talking. But before we spin the ball into play, this is how the story began.

Back in time

In 1989, Makerere community members and a group of students gathered with an idea to start a community rugby club that would be affiliated with the University. They did not want to start just any rugby club, but one that would carry the name of the warriors. So they chose Impis, a Zulu word meaning warriors or regiments. The founders chose it deliberately as they envisioned building a team that would fight, never retreat and leave a legacy that would outlast their own university years.

Notwithstanding the limited resources, the club grew slowly and eventually became a household name for the Makerere fraternity, adopting the culture, songs and chants of the university and becoming a sweetheart of the students who always yelled with passion in support, each matchday.

Glorious '96

Seven years after the club's founding, Impis won the national rugby league in 1996. The team was a collection of students and alumni, held together by little more than arrogance and the knowledge that they represented something bigger than themselves. They had no corporate sponsors, no fancy facilities, or professional coaching staff; all they had was belief.

Darren Aine charges on to score a try during an Impis league game.

Match after match, they took on the established teams and found ways to win. When the final whistle blew on that championship season, The Graveyard erupted, students poured onto the field, and alumni were beaming with pride that a club that had been born in the optimism of 1989 had reached the summit of Ugandan rugby. This was historical!

Ms. Peninnah Kabenge, a seasoned sports administrator and club patron then, notes that from her perspective, the victory was foreseeable. 

“The club had a lot of quality in regards to talent, as the top players from high school rugby would join Makerere and automatically get assimilated into the club. As such, the team dominated easily and even became a benchmark for the entire rugby scene in Uganda. 

“Our performance attracted big brands to give us sponsorship like Hima Cement, which sponsored the renovation of The Graveyard with 200 bags of cement along with facilitation of the team for the subsequent seasons,” she added.

The long wait

The years that followed the 1996 victory, however, were unkind to Impis. Kabenge observed that the club remained competitive, produced quality players, and maintained its reputation as a tough side to face at home, but the championship did not return. 

“The biggest challenge was the poaching of our players by the other rugby clubs we were competing with. These teams approached the players with better offers and swayed them away, and at the end of the day, we were playing against our own players.” 

The club became something of a yo-yo team, bouncing between divisions, never quite finding the consistency to challenge for silverware. They would have strong seasons followed by disappointing ones. Players would graduate and move on, taking their experience with them, while new faces would arrive, raw and untested. It is a frustrating cycle that continues to haunt the club to this day. 

It was two seasons ago, in 2024, that the fall came. The season had been a struggle from the start. Key players had graduated and moved on, the squad lacked depth, and even matches they should have won slipped away in the final minutes. Everyone could see the fall coming except, perhaps, the most optimistic supporters.

The final blow came on May 19th, 2024, when they played against Eagles Rugby Club with the game ending 23 - 36 in favour of Eagles. After over five years in the top flight, Impis Rugby Club was relegated. This news hit the Makerere community hard.

Last season, the club, rather than making excuses, accepted the reality of relegation but did not settle. Tough decisions had to be made to let go of the old guard, and a new set of younger and hungrier warriors was assembled. The search for a new coach started and led to the appointment of Alvin Nkamba, an alumnus of the club and the university. He is also a very experienced coach, familiar with winning trophies, as evidenced during his tenure with St. Mary’s College Kisubi (SMACK) Rugby. Coach Alvin, who shared similar aspirations with the club, also believed in the strategy of rebuilding the team from the ground up through active recruitment of young and hungry players. Names like Darren Aine, Edmond Ndugutse, Guma Arinde, and Brian Ngabo, to mention a few, were among the fresh legs that joined the squad.

This new team not only understood the assignment but executed it in style by completing and winning the regular season and playoff rounds of the second division undefeated. They scored tries with finesse and defended with the fury of a team that had been disrespected by fate and was taking it out on anyone who stood in their way. Promotion was secured with weeks to spare, and the club returned to the Premiership with a point to prove. Aine, one of the fresh recruits from SMACK, won player of the season, leading the team to promotion.

Impis fans as they cheer on the team during a game at The Graveyard.

This season, the team has played with poise and belief which is uncharacteristic of a newly promoted side. Easing past Warriors Rugby Club, saw them face off with the giants next, Heathens, a team that boasts one of the most decorated trophy cabinets, and experienced players who even get national team call-ups. It was literally a David-versus-Goliath match. Impis defeated the Heathens, with Aine famously drifting through the opponents’ defence to score the winning try, sending the crowd into a cacophony. 

“It is undoubtedly the best moment of my rugby career, beating Heathens here at The Graveyard comes second to none,” Aine exclaimed when he was asked about the significance of the moment.

Following this win, the team developed a swagger that some found irritating and others, irresistible. They branded T-shirts showing the league standings with Impis at number one, as if to say, "Look at us. We told you so." It was the kind of move that could backfire spectacularly if the results stopped coming. 

Heartbreak and hope

On March 1, 2026, the unbeaten run came to an end with a bitter loss to Mongers Rugby Club, another of the league's established powers. The result was 17-16, a one-point loss that could have gone either way until the final moments.

For a team that had believed itself invincible, the defeat was a brutal reminder of reality. They had come within a whisker of getting another back-to-back win, extending their unbeaten run and cementing their grip on the top spot. They had played well enough to win, but they had not won, and in the harsh mathematics of the league table, close does not count.

With a couple more losses this season to Kobs and Pirates, we are yet to see whether the glorious start to the season will fuel the team to stay in the title race despite the fact that they are currently situated in the eighth position on the league table.

Who is behind the team?

Behind the scenes, Impis has built a network of support that makes the current run possible. The club has strategic partnerships that provide the resources a competitive team needs. The team's home and away kits are sponsored by Giordano, an International apparel brand. The hydration partners are Jibu Water, which provides refreshments to the team on each match day and most importantly, the Makerere University Sports and Games Union Department headed by the Deputy Dean of Sports Brian Miiro Nsubuga, the Dean of Students Office, and Makerere University Administration, as articulated by the club’s Chairman, Sylvester Egumire Nnyombi.

Club Chairman: Sylvester Egumire Nnyombi

The fans, too, are a great support. They brave the Saturday afternoon heat at The Graveyard and travel to away matches. The club Chairman highlighted that it is harder to play Impis at The Graveyard when the semester is on than when the students are off campus. 

“Come and support the team even more. The club needs you more, buy club merchandise, help finance the club so that these performances keep coming,” he urged the fans of the club.

What’s next?

The question now is, can a team that was playing second division rugby last season actually win the premiership title? Coach Alvin Nkamba believes that the target is a realistic one. 

“The boys have proven themselves right in front of everyone, and I believe they are capable of anything,” He says, adding firmly, “It can happen, we just have to keep going one game at a time.”

Whatever happens between now and the final whistle of the final match, this season has already been a victory of sorts. It has shown that relegation is not the end, and that promotion can be the beginning of something special.