Nigeria Content Online

The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation has plans to take the game to greater heights in Nigeria.

It aims to do this by training a new crop of rugby players: the youth.

Akin Akintola, chief operating officer of the federation, said they would build structures that would last beyond now:

“For you to build a structure, you have to lay a foundation and that is what we are doing. The 14 million naira grant provided by Promasidor is for the iTRY Cluster Programme and it came at the right time. The I TRY Cluster Programme is an outreach which seeks to basically encourage youngsters in schools to get involved in the game. What we would be doing is that we would send in coaches we trained with support from University of Stellenbosch.”

The University of Stellenbosch has for 150 years been rugby stalwarts in South Africa, helping to integrate Black South Africa into the game through an initiative – the Matie Academy. This initiative went out into the community and made rugby attractive for everybody. They started with just three academies, but in the last five years, they have had over 500 academies in Stellenbosch and its environs. This same Academy, led by its CEO, Russell Carlse, was invited by the NRFF for regional coaching and referees’ workshop and seminar in May, where about 40 participants were trained.

Youth first

The iTry Cluster Programme begins on the 26th of this month, with coaches from the coaching and workshop seminar sent to the schools.

“The coaches would be sent to about 10 schools in Lagos and the Class 7 kids (JSS One) would be trained in the techniques of rugby for the next five weeks, after which all the schools would play each other for nine months. Next year, we would start with the JSS one students again, till at all levels there are rugby players all over secondary schools,” Jide Afolabi, the coaching institute coordinator, said.

While the efforts of the federation appear laudable, there is the belief in some quarters that they are not moving fast enough. Only last week, some players staged a protest stating, amongst other things, that the federation was slow in taking steps to have the ban placed on Nigeria’s participation in international rugby competitions by the International Rugby Board (IRB) lifted.

But Akintola faulted this view, noting the federation has been active, trying to sort out the issue:

“We have been in contact with the International Rugby Board and the Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) on the issue. We even met with them in May to discuss the matter and we have another meeting scheduled for October, also concerning the ban. They have expressed understanding of the process by which we came in, but they would have preferred a more workable process and we are working towards that. We have asked the international board for time to work things out.”

One step at a time

Akintola added that the ban on rugby does not affect the development programmes of the federation planned for this year.

“We set this year aside specifically for the men and youth. Next year would be for the women and universities. We want to take rugby into the universities because as at now, only Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife has a team. For the coordinators of the men senior rugby, Martin Crawford and Yinka Marinho are to ensure that four 7’s tournaments are played every year.

“So far, they have done well. We have had two of such tournaments this year – the first was held at Ilorin and was called Cresta 7’s, where Addax RFC won, while the second was held in Kaduna by the Kaduna Rugby Club, and was won by Racing RFC. We are looking forward to the remaining two.

“The other project is the iTry Cluster Programme, which is to start in about three weeks. There are other reach out programmes, aimed at sensitising the public about the game of rugby”, Akintola said.

He said that another achievement of the NRFF this year is the establishment of the men’s national team.

“Black Stallion is the name of our national team and when we wanted to form the team in January, we sent letters to all clubs so that from there we could pick the best players. Now, we have a team of local and foreign-based players and they train together every quarter. Their first training was in Lagos, the second was in Kaduna. The two other training would take place in Kaduna and Lagos respectively,” he added.