Uganda, May 5 -- Pirates escaped from the jaws of defeat to oust a stubborn Rhinos side to book a semifinal berth in the Nile Special Rugby Championship on Saturday at Kings Park.

The defending champions carried a mean 10-7 lead from the first leg but were trailing Rhinos 31-7 by halftime.

With the defeat in sight, the sea-robbers under stand-in coach Isaac Massa had a candid talk at halftime and returned with a raiders' plan.

The trio of Paul Bagota, Isaac Jaden and Haruna Muhammad waylaid the Rhinos at the banks with four tries as Ivan Magomu dragged them to the deep waters with ten points off his boots.

The resilient Rhinos almost threw the spanner in the works with the last move of the game after dragging their opponents to their ...