The pitch at Makerere University is called the Graveyard. It is an apt name for a club that spent the better part of two years flirting with extinction and then refusing to stay dead.
Makerere Impis were relegated from the Uganda Rugby Premiership in 2024, dropping to the Central Regional Championship and facing what looked like a long road back.
They had tumbled out alongside Lifeguard Rams, a fellow Makerere-based club, which created a punishing problem. Because both relegated teams came from the same Central Rugby Championship, only one could return immediately. To get back, Impis would first have to beat their neighbours.
The story of how they did it, and what has followed since is for another day.
Building from the schools
The seeds of the crisis were visible before the axe fell. Impis were caught mid-cycle, shifting from one generation of experienced players to another of rookies who were mostly playing their first senior rugby. And within two years from 2022, they had been relegated from the Premiership and lost core status in the National Sevens Series.
Then came Alvin Nkamba, a coach leading a Premiership side for the very first time. He arrived after a decorated run at St Mary’s College Kisubi where he had won an East Africa Games gold medal, two consecutive Central Schools finals and the 2025 Central Schools Sevens title.
He brought with him Syrus Sebuliba as a deputy. Sebuliba had coached Impis himself in 2023, and joined a part of a backroom staff that included strength and conditioning coach Brian Wambedde and reserves coach Emmanuel Sama, a former referee and Victoria Sharks technical team alumnus.
Nkamba’s approach was structural.
“One of the things we looked at has been extending our culture into the age-grade community most especially the rugby-playing schools,” he explained.
“Having that message go out to these young boys has enabled us to get a very strong base from which we pick the best of the best.”
The players he recruited already knew each other, bonded across six years of schools rugby. “Trying to get them together wasn’t actually hard,” he adds, “These are friends and brothers. Our job was to get them within the Impis system and get the best out of them.”
Impis went through the Central Championship unbeaten, edging Rams 14-13 at the Graveyard. Then they won all three Promotional Playoff games, including a 24-13 defeat of Gulu City Falcons that ultimately bounced the back into the topflight division and confirmed that the Graveyard would host top-flight rugby once more.
Season two
Before the 2026 campaign began, Nkamba sat with players and staff to evaluated the fixture list and set their targets and assigned roles.
The executive committee led by chairman Sylvester Egumire Nnyombi built a gym, approximately 60 percent complete, at the Graveyard. An attack coach was added to the staff.
“Everyone being able to comfortably sit into their shoes and do their part has enabled us to achieve most of our goals,” Nkamba said.
They opened with a 44-16 demolition of Warriors, the biggest win of their season. In week two, they edged former champions Heathens 16-10, with Darren Aine slotting two penalties and racing clear from his own half to seal the result. After two rounds, the promoted side sat top of the Premiership.
Over thirteen games, they have won seven, scoring 26 tries and conceding 31, recording the seventh-best attacking and sixth-best defensive numbers in the league.
Daring Aine
Their skipper Darren Aine has been the season’s defining individual. According to data shared by Isa Metrics, the fullback and backline captain has amassed 131 points, the most ever recorded by a player in their debut Premiership campaign, surpassing Malcolm Okello’s 130 for Heathens in 2024.
He is Impis’ second-top try scorer with four, has converted 42 of 65 attempts at goal, and has been named Man of the Match in wins over both Heathens and Rhinos.
“He is literally at the beginning of a very impressive career,” Nkamba said of his point man.
“Not only because of his talent and athleticism but because he is a very good leader. He knows how to get those around him comfortable and playing even when things are not happening.”
Leading the try count with five is captain Clarence Muhumuza, a hooker and one of the youngest skippers in the competition. Veteran Pius Mpoza provides the experience and loose forward guidance the younger crop needs. And flyhalf Edgar Akimanzi delivered arguably the knockout’s most dramatic moment, a 40-metre drop goal that closed the aggregate gap on Kobs to a single point before Impis swept away to win the game by 20.
Comeback kings
Defeats to Plascon Mongers and then a 31-9 hammering by Black Pirates mid-season checked their ambitions but they qualified for the knockouts and drew Kobs in the quarterfinals.
The first leg ended 23-12 to Kobs, and most felt their season had been buried at their graveyard but what followed has already entered Ugandan rugby folklore. Mpoza marked his 100th appearance for the club with two tries and a man-of-the-match show as Impis overturned the deficit to stun Kobs 30-10 at Kampala Rugby Club to advance 35-33 on aggregate.
Now they face Toyota Buffaloes in the semifinal. Two teams nobody anticipated would still be standing at this stage.
Nkamba is measured when asked what comes next. “We are only getting started,” Nkamba said.
The Graveyard, as it turns out, is where Impis’ resurrections happen.
In the other semifinal, Pirates will cross to Kyadondo to face Heathens in another classic. The Graveyard, it turns out, is where resurrections happen.