Nigeria Content Online

The
Nigeria Rugby Football Federation on Wednesday launched the iTry Rugby
Cluster Programme with funfare at Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval. The
programme, meant for Junior Secondary School 1(JSS1) students, was
launched in conjunction with Promasidor Nigeria, makers of Cowbell
Milk.

The iTry Cluster
Programme of the NRFF is meant to build structures that would last. The
scheme also seeks to introduce rugby into the secondary school
curriculum. A training programme which would begin this week and run
for five weeks would flag off the programme after which the children
would play against each other for the next nine months. The launching
had boys and girls from about 30 schools in Lagos attending the
occasion.

A tough task

Though the children
were excited, they did not seem to know what they were there for. A
simple question of “what are you here for?” had left the children
looking for their game masters, to explain to them what they had been
gathered for. This kind of ignorance is what the NRFF hopes to address.

Ajetunmobi Olusola,
games master of Igbowo Junior Secondary school, Mushin said though he
knew about rugby, the children had no clue about the game.

“I know of the game of Rugby but I have very little idea of how it is played.

“We are in this
school’s programme because we were invited to join. Our school is known
to be very good in sporting activities, so I think that was one of the
reasons why we were chosen to be involved in this programme. I know it
is going to be good for the children because I saw that when you were
talking to them earlier they had no idea of what you were saying”.

The training format

The children will
be trained to play Rugby 7’s which is another formation in Rugby. It
simply means that each of the teams would be seven on each side.
According to Fola Odetoyinbo, NRFF’s Head of Youth Development, the
reason for this is that Rugby 7’s is less complicated and easier to
learn than the Rugby 15’s. He goes on to say that “come 2011, we hope
to carry this (the event) to other parts of the country but we would
start from Kwara, then Kaduna and on and on till we are able to have
the programme in schools all over the country. Our vision is to get to
the 2016 Olympic Games, so you can see we have long term plans.

Jide Afolabi, NRFF
Coaching Institute Coordinator said the coaches had been trained to the
standard of the International Rugby Board (IRB) so that they will be
able to train young ones. One of the coaches, Clement Dennis had been
coaching some schools on his own before.

“The initiative is
a plus for the development of the game of rugby. Formerly, I was just
coaching on my own with support from the schools I was coaching but and
it was not too easy because they were no tools for trainings. Now
however, we know that with the Federation giving a helping hand, things
will be better.

He goes on to say that this not the first this kind of initiative was tried.

“There was effort
in times past to organize a schools Rugby programme in 1999 and I was
one of the coaches involved in that venture but it was not successful.
I cannot tell you till date what actually happened even though I was
actively involved. Everything just disintegrated just like that and the
programme did not come to a satisfactory conclusion. This one however,
better organised and I know that it would go in a better direction,” he
said.

The high point of
the day was when the sporting items such as the kits, balls and cones
were distributed to the children through their games masters.

“Now I can’t wait
to learn the game. I will know how to play more games than some of my
friends,” one of the youngsters, Aliyu Sani said after the basics of
Rugby had been explained.

Journalists were also not left out, as a crash course on the
history, the set pieces, and the different positions people play in
rugby was given by Akin Akintola, the Chief Operating Officer of the
rugby federation.