Nigeria Content Online

In
a bid to promote the game of rugby at the grassroots, the Nigeria Rugby
Football Federation (NRFF) had an official launch of the iTry Rugby
Cluster Programme.

The Programme, an
initiative of the NRFF, in conjunction with Promasidor Nigeria, makers
of Cowbell Milk, is meant to create awareness of rugby among children.
According to Akin Akintola, the Chief Operating Officer of the NRFF,
“The iTry Rugby Cluster Programme is in essence an outreach programme
that wants to embrace schools. We want rugby to be part of the
secondary school curriculum. The need for sustainability and continuity
in rugby was what brought about the emergence of the programme.”

A continuous project

Children from about
30 schools turned up for the occasion, which took place on Wednesday at
the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos. The children, picked from
Junior Secondary School One, were visibly excited to be there. They are
going to be the first set to be participating in the Cluster Programme.
According to Kayode Oguntayo, Vice President of NRFF: “The programme is
meant to be an ongoing thing. After this year, we would start with
another set of JSS 1 students until the all the classes now have teams.
This way we are assured that there would be a continuous stream of
students playing rugby.”

The children will
be trained to play Rugby 7’s, which is a formation of the game. In it
each of the teams would have seven players squaring up on each side.
According to Fola Odetoyinbo, NRFF Head of Youth Development, the
reason for this is that Rugby 7’s is less complicated and easier to
learn than other variants. “Come 2011, we hope to carry this 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,” he said.

Odetoyinbo also stated that to make the scheme a sustainable one, a
number of investments had been made. “Twelve coaches have been
accredited following completion of a comprehensive International Rugby
Board (IRB) training program,” he said. “Each coach will be given a
package including track suit, rugby shirts, training cones, balls,
pumps, stop watch and a laptop to enable them train the students at
their designated schools.” Also at the launch each of the schools were
given kits for the students, balls and pumps. The coaches have been
assigned to schools and training is expected to begin next week.