NRFF names squad for Africa Cup 7s Championship

After a careful assessment of players at the just concluded independence rugby sevens championship in Lagos, Eleven local based and one foreign based players have been   named for Black Stallions squad for the 2014 Africa Cup 7s.

 

“It’s a strong squad and all the players on this squad performed exceptionally well at the just concluded Independence 7s championship. The tournament was used to look at good enough players for Black Stallions 7s and it is quite unfortunate that our exiles players in UK could not come down for the tournament despite being offered an all expense paid trip to Nigeria,” said Fasimoye Olatunji. (VP/TD NRFF)

The team will be captained by Azeez Ladipo who is also the 15’s  National team captain, his versatility and experience geared  him to  lead his club (Cowrie RFC) to the Cup victory in the just concluded Independence 7s championship, he also led his club to plate victory in Dubai 7s last year.

“We will not lack pace at all as we now have the duo of Christian Ogar and Abdulmalik Salihu on the squad. Both players were simply outstanding last weekend. They both have those x factors; good feet, good acceleration. Christian is big and strong and gives us great cover out wide.”

The team also includes a number of Sevens stalwarts, including the in-form Peter Okere Ambrose who single handedly took Plateau Tigers of Jos to the semi final of the just concluded independence 7’s championship  and Hafis Ayinla will lead the forwards and get his first 7s cap for Black Stallions after putting up a good show at the same tournament.

 “In this Black Stallions squad, I think we have an extremely talented group of players with the right mix of experience and youth. I’m looking forward to seeing what the team can produce in Harare. We are also looking at including two youngsters: Kelechi Anozie (Hawkster Athletics RFC) and Monday Alex (Racing RFC) to train with squad to prepare them for the future” Said Fasimoye Olatunji TD/VP (NRFF).

The 12-man squad is expected to resume camp in Lagos on the 14^th of November in preparation for the African 7’s Championship; the team will be coached by South Africa Rugby 7s legend Fabian Juries who is ex Springbok player and the 4^th highest point scorer in world 7-a-side rugby. He will bring his wealth of experience into the team.

 Nigeria Squad: Lasisi Kazeem. (Nigeria Police), Olanrewaju Azeez ((Nigeria Police), Ayinla  Hafis (Cowrie RFC), Azeez Ladipo (Cowrie RFC), Peter Ambrose (Plateau Tigers), Salihu Abdulmalik (Nigeria Police), Oduntan Olatunji (Cowrie RFC), Christian Ogar (Cowrie RFC), John Oladele (Cowrie RFC), Abubakar Sadam (Zaria RFC), Samaila Agwam (Hamilton RFC, South Africa), Lawal Saulawa (Abuja RFC) 

EDO STATE INTRODUCE RUGBY INTO SCHOOLS

Edo State, a household name in the beautiful game of Rugby development in Nigeria will be breaking new grounds with the introduction of the game into schools through the launch of International Rugby Board grassroots program tagged “Get Into Rugby”

The program will be launched on Thursday 06 November 2014 through a Seminar & Clinic at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Media Center from 9am -4pm for School’s sports teacher/master/mistress of over 25 Schools drawn from both government and private schools respectively in Benin City.

According to the coordinator of the program Mr. Ntiense Williams, the Head Coach of Edo State Rugby Association, who also introduced the sport into Edo State some 8 years ago, “We will like to get Edo State fully integrated into the National & International Rugby scheme of things with the introduction of the Schools Rugby program tagged by the International Rugby Board as “Get Into Rugby” (GIR), and what we will popularly refer to as “Catch Them Young Sports Development Program. This program is a genuine way of inculcation the ethos & rudiment of Rugby Football to our children at a very early age which will greatly help them to grow in the system, and become National & International players of repute to Edo State in the nearest future.

Said Williams who is also popularly know as “Mr. Rugby” in Nigeria, “initially when I was brought to Edo state, it was solely for producing a team, and winning the National Sports Festival which we have done creditably well with a historic record of 4 gold medals out of the available 6 gold medal, a feat which has not be broken to date, but we believe that we need to bring the game to the international standard which is why the introduction of the schools game is very paramount”

Said Ntiense who is the only International Rugby Board Educator for Nigeria, “Get Into Rugby” (GIR) is an International Rugby Board program aimed at promoting and popularizing the beautiful game of Rugby around the world towards Rugby’s re-introduction into the Olympic Games Rio 2016 as a medal winning event. Early this year, the IRB in conjunction with the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation hosted an Educator & Coaching Seminar for the “Get Into Rugby” program in Lagos. At the end of the program, Edo State was one of the 8 State in the entire country selected for the Pilot Scheme of the program.

This program is very timely for us in Edo State, as we are now involved in genuine sports development to be able to identify talents to replace our aging ones who are fast wearing out. We will also be grooming up genuine athletes for the Junior National Sports Festival & the Schools Sports Festival respectively, which Rugby will soon feature in and also preparing the grounds for the reintroduction of Rugby in the Bi-annual National Sports Festival after Calabar 2014 games.

We will like to call on well meaning Companies, Organizations, and individuals to come on board to sponsor this program through the donation of simple things like Rugby balls which is the basic requirement to introduce the game into a community. We are looking at attaching each school in the program to an interested individual sponsor or donor, especially people that have affinity with the school.

I am really excited with this program and I am looking forward to it kicking of with the launch Seminar & Clinic on Thursday at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. I am very grateful to the Nigeria Association of Physical Health Education, Recreation, Sports & Dance Oredo Chapter led by the Chairman Mr. Okunyawe A.V. & Secretary Mr. Peter Okodu who have given the program a good platform to spring off from. 

 

The Seminar & Clinic is expected to be declared open by the Edo State Honourable Commissioner for Youth, Sports & Social Mobilization Chris Okaeben.

Issued By

Ntiense Williams

Coordinator

“Get Into Rugby”

Edo State

INDEPENDENCE RUGBY SEVENS TOURNAMENT; Police Machines RFC dethroned

In a thrilling cup final of the Independence Rugby Sevens, Cowrie RFC of Lagos beat Barewa RFC of Kano 27-14 to win the trophy.
Fuelled by the support of an appreciative and a large number of expatriate crowd at the Onikan Stadium, Hafis Ayinla, Sani Halilu, John Oladele, Samuel Ekpo, Tunji Oduntan, Captain Azeez Ladipo and player of the tournament Christian Ogar inspired Cowrie to victory.
The emphatic victory handed a fifth Independence Sevens trophy in six years to the club who defeated last year’s cup winners Police Machines 10-5 in a breath taking semi final that went down to the wire. Police Machines had won all four of their matches before the semi final, but came up against a strong Cowries Team with seven different try scorers in the tournament to maintain their 100% record.
In the second semi final Barewa had knocked out Plateau Tigers of Jos 17-12 in another tight encounter. The third place play-off saw Police Machines return stronger to beat Plateau Tigers 22-7.

In other categories, Racing RFC went home with the plate silverware, narrowly defeating South South Select 12 – 10 in the plate final. They had suffered a 7-15 narrow defeat to Police Machines in the cup quarter final which compelled them to the plate semi finals where they claimed an easy victory against Royal Stallions RFC 29-5. Gosar RFC also went home with the Bowl after defeating Abia Buffalos 17-12 in the Bowl finals. 

Lagos state Governor; Babatunde Raji Fashola also graced the electrifying event. The Governor gave a glamorous entrance landing in a helicopter on the pitch to present the trophy and awards.
Tournament Director and Technical Director of Nigeria Rugby Football Federation ‘Fasimoye Olatunji’ commended the sponsor CMB Building Maintenance and Investment Company Limited for their support towards the development of rugby in Nigeria; he also commended Friends Of Rugby (FOR) for initiating the tournament.
 "I am impressed by the turnout of spectators and their support, now we know that Rugby has huge followership. Having the expatriate community, families and beautiful ladies as audience in attendance filled the event with excitement and jamboree. the tournament also gave us a platform to access and select players that will be called to camp for the Africa Cup 7’s Championship which is scheduled to take place in Zimbabwe on the 29th -30th  of November 2014”.