Nigeria Content Online

The
second edition of the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) North-West
African Women’s Sevens rugby tournament was won by Tunisia over the
Easter weekend as the Nigerian team missed out from the event.

The Nigerian team
had earlier been billed to take part in the tournament. But, according
to Akin Akintola, a representative of the Nigerian Rugby Football
Federation (NRFF), logistics problems ensured that the Nigerian team
were unavailable for the meet.

“We could not get
flights out of the country to Senegal, which was why the ladies could
not make it to the tournament,” said Akintola in a telephone interview
with NEXT.

Tunisia’s women’s
rugby team won the second edition of the tournament at the Sports
College, some 60km from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, after defeating
the hosts 5-0 in a thrilling final. It was a second successive title
for the North Africans who also won the inaugural edition in 2009.

At the last
edition, the Nigerians returned home with a second place finish and
many expected them to go all the way this time around.

Flight arrangements

Expressing
disappointment at this development, Gifty Ann Myers, a representative
of CAR, stated that it should not have happened as Nigeria is looked to
for guidance in the region.

“Flight
arrangements should have been sorted out ahead of time because the NRFF
had almost four months notice to accept and prepare,” she told NEXT
from her base in Accra, Ghana. “We hope that Nigeria will improve on
her administrative structure to avoid such lapses in future.”

One of the
players, Adebimpe Johnson, who had been training for the Senegal
tournament expressed disappointment at the shoddy preparation.

“Sincerely, more
is expected from the NRFF. When I was called for national duty, I was
very happy to be involved, but they left us in confusion not explaining
what was going on. That was very sad,” she lamented.

“We have gone to
Senegal before during the Rugby World Cup African qualifiers, and we
managed to make the trip notwithstanding the challenges of lack of
funds by then,” added Ntiense Williams, a member of CAR’s technical
committee.

“It is not the way
to go especially when we are just returning to international rugby
after a two-years ban by the International Rugby Board,” added Williams
who is of the opinion that it could not have been travel arrangements
that stopped Nigeria from being in the tournament.

Meanwhile, reports
reaching NEXT claim that the inability of the team to feature in
Senegal was because the NRFF did not officially inform the National
Sports Commission (NSC). However, Tony Ohaeri, a spokesman of the NSC,
debunked the claims as rumours.

Seven countries participated at this year’s event. They were
winners Tunisia, Morocco, Cameroun, Egypt, Burkina Faso and Senegal.
Niger, who replaced war-torn Cote d’Ivoire, were disqualified after it
was discovered that they fielded underage players.