By Akeem Lawal
THE Nigeria rugby national team, Black Stallions, made up
of 21 home-based and two foreign-based players will depart for Morocco on
Monday ahead of the Africa Cup 1C Rugby Tournament, scheduled to hold at Stade
du C.O.C. in Casablanca, Morocco.
The Division 1C matches which will be played between 10 and
16 July 2016, will see teams from Mauritius, Morocco and Nigeria play in a round
robin format. Cameroon was originally scheduled to compete, but withdrew when
the competition was rescheduled.
Nigeria will play Mauritius on the 13th of July and later
play Morocco on the 16th of July.
This division also doubles as the first qualification
phase for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and the winner of 2016 Africa Cup Division
1C will win promotion to the 2017 Africa Cup Division 1B, the second phase of
the Rugby World Cup qualification process.
The President of the Nigeria Rugby football Federation
Sir Edward Fom is however excited over the selection of two foreign based
players and twenty one home based players for the tournament.
Sir Fom enthused that picking the team from the just
concluded South West and Northern League has pointed to the immense talents
that abounds locally.
“We are really delighted that we have a bunch of good
players that we can pick from locally to represent Nigeria at the fast
approaching Africa Rugby Cup 1C.”
While reacting to the invitation of two youngsters,
Alfred Oche and Monday Alex, the federations’ president said, “What we have
decided to do now is incorporate some young players into the team to enable them
learn from the older lads so that we can groom them for the future. We have a
fantastic coach, Fabian juries is blessed with a high technical, tactical and
deep knowledge of rugby. The boys will give their all as we try and qualify
into Cup 1B. This will take us closer to 2019 World Cup qualifiers”, Sir Fom said.
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