{"id":929,"date":"2016-12-28T21:22:39","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T21:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/?p=929"},"modified":"2017-03-21T20:12:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T20:12:35","slug":"walesonline-9th-feb-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/2016\/12\/28\/walesonline-9th-feb-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"WalesOnline 9th Feb 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This article was taken from WalesOnline: 9th February 2015<br \/>\n\u00a9 <span class=\"fullYear\">2016<\/span> Media Wales Ltd<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"\">Tries on debut for Commonwealth Games &#8216;runaway&#8217; from Uganda now playing for a Welsh rugby club<\/h1>\n<div class=\"span-16 col-1\">\n<div class=\"span-15-5 col-1 article\">\n<div id=\"row1\" class=\"tmRow span-15-5 col-1 article-page\">\n<div class=\"tmCol article\">\n<div class=\"styleGroup \">\n<ul class=\"byline-bar\" data-widget=\"tm.omniture.omniLinkTracking\" data-context=\"tools-bar-\" data-friendly-name=\"Tools Bar Link Clicks\" data-max-times-to-track-links=\"5\">\n<li class=\"time\"><time class=\"byline-time\" datetime=\"2015-02-08T06:00Z\">06:00, 8 FEB 2015<\/time><\/li>\n<li class=\"time\"><span class=\"section-label\">UPDATED <\/span><time class=\"byline-time\" datetime=\"2015-02-09T12:58Z\">12:58, 9 FEB 2015<\/time><\/li>\n<li class=\"author\"><span class=\"section-label\">BY<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20160408161055\/http:\/\/www.walesonline.co.uk\/authors\/james-mccarthy\/\" rel=\"author\" data-type=\"hdln-auth\" data-action=\"author:James McCarthy\">JAMES MCCARTHY<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"lead-text\">\n<h2 class=\"\">Benon Kizza and Philip Pariyo playing for St Peters RFC after vanishing from last year&#8217;s Scottish games<\/h2>\n<p>A Ugandan rugby player who went on the the run after the Commonwealth Games scored two tries on his debut for a small Welsh rugby club.<\/p>\n<p>Philip Pariyo and Benon Kizza have both started playing for Cardiff&#8217;s St Peter&#8217;s RFC, as revealed by WalesOnline on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The two men vanished in Scotland last August amidst rumours they were working in a Glasgow car wash.<\/p>\n<p>Pariyo has already played for St Peters and scored two tries while Kizza was substituted.<\/p>\n<p>The pair failed to fly home to Uganda with the rest of the team at the end of the Games and the Uganda government began an investigation into their disappearance.<\/p>\n<p>The Ugandan sports minister spelled out at the time: \u201cWe shall find them and make sure that they return home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But after claiming asylum the pair \u2013 who had been in the African nations Sevens team \u2013 ended up in Cardiff where they met with bosses at the city\u2019s St Peters RFC.<\/p>\n<p>The Uganda Rugby Union has told Wales Online they do not approve of the move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have actually signed them now and they are playing for us,\u201d club chairman Joe Sweeney said this week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have gone through all the bureaucratic procedures and everything and they are signed as St Peter\u2019s players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPhillip played last Saturday and scored two tries. Benon was subbed and was on the bench.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 625px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stpetersrfc.co.uk\/Images\/Misc\/BenonPhilipe.jpg\" width=\"615\" height=\"410\"><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saturday&#8217;s away game against Porth Harlequins represents a sharp contrast with Uganda<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The two players spoke to club officials after they were housed nearby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot far from our field is a hotel used to house asylum seekers,\u201d Mr Sweeney said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was approached by Communities First and asked if some of the asylum seekers could use our field to play football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Communities First is a Welsh Government body focused on tackling poverty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause we are a community club we said yes,\u201d Mr Sweeney said.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\u201cOne of the players approached our coach and mentioned he played a bit of rugby.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was noticed he was an extra gifted rugby player and we spoke to him about why he was here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt transpired he had been at the Commonwealth Games playing for Uganda and while here he and his mate decided to seek asylum.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 align=\"center\">Red tape &#8211; then we signed them<\/h3>\n<p>St Peters moved to sign them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was a bit of bureaucracy but we have signed them now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Sweeney believed the players had been granted asylum for \u201ca period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A source said: \u201cIt\u2019s a tragic story which has turned good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair decided to stay because of personal and political reasons. They were \u201cpetrified\u201d of a \u201cpotential backlash against them,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n<p>When they were found by the club they were barely able to feed themselves.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"http:\/\/www.stpetersrfc.co.uk\/Images\/Photos\/People\/pariyo.jpg\" width=\"279\" height=\"419\"><br \/>\nPhilip Pariyo in action on Saturday<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>\u201cThey are now eating better,\u201d the insider said. \u201cThey were going a day-and-a-half without food.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is understood the pair are missing their families desperately.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe one guy, Benon, has a sick daughter, back home,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think the WRU need a big hoo-ha about it. They do not want too many people looking into it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are playing now because the WRU have given the OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 align=\"center\">Uganda Rugby Union not happy<\/h3>\n<p>They are now staying at a house \u201cwe have done up for them\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have given them everything for free and got them out of their housing mess,\u201d the insider said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are working for a valeting firm on minimum wage and the people that own the house have been good to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Uganda Rugby Union was unimpressed by the move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have not sought our authority as a union, they have not been cleared by the union,\u201d Ugandan rugby coach Yayiro Kasasa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat happened is that when we came for the Commonwealth Games we signed a code of conduct in order to come over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they never returned to Uganda, they ran away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey remained in the UK and broke our code of conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone \" src=\"http:\/\/www.stpetersrfc.co.uk\/Images\/Photos\/People\/benon.jpg\" width=\"486\" height=\"324\"><br \/>\nPhilip Pariyo in action on Saturday<\/p>\n<p>At the time Uganda\u2019s sports minister, Charles Bakkabulindi, said: \u201cWe shall find them and make sure that they return home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou have to clear people through International Rugby to play for another club,\u201d Mr Kasasa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut in this case they have found their way to the team they are playing for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He had no idea \u201cwhat reason they gave for staying there\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey thought it was right for them to stay and find a better way of living,\u201d Mr Kasasa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have never said no to anyone who wants to go out of rugby here but they have to seek the audience of the rugby union.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>World Rugby, formerly called the International Rugby Board, declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>But a source said: \u201cThis is likely to be a matter between the URU and the two players. Do they have the right to stop them playing?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time of writing neither of the players were available for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Sweeney said: \u201cTheir legal people have told them not to speak to the press.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A Home Office spokesman would not discuss the players\u2019 asylum status.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do not routinely comment on individual cases,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article was taken from WalesOnline: 9th February 2015 \u00a9 2016 Media Wales Ltd Tries on debut for Commonwealth Games &#8216;runaway&#8217; from Uganda now playing for a Welsh rugby club 06:00, 8 FEB 2015 UPDATED 12:58, 9 FEB 2015 BY JAMES MCCARTHY Benon Kizza and Philip Pariyo playing for St Peters RFC after vanishing from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":930,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpetersrfc.co.uk\/snr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}