.To play Kenya, Senegal in Pool A
By Akeem Lawal
THE Nigeria rugby football national team, the Black
Stallions will depart the shores of the country on Wednesday via Kenya Airways for
Nairobi, Kenya ahead of the African Cup 7s Tournament which holds on the 23rd –
24th September, 2016.
Nigeria will play hosts Kenya and Senegal in pool A in
the two-day tournament to be held at the Kasarani Stadium, Nairobi,
Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com reports.
Last year’s runners up, Zimbabwe will play Uganda and
Mauritius in Pool B, while Morocco are
in pool C with Zambia and Madagascar.
Tunisia lead pool D where they will play Namibia and
Botswana.
For a place in the 2015 final, Kenya had beaten Tunisia
42-12 in the semis as Zimbabwe beat a vastly improved Morocco 26-0 in the other
semi. Away from the top four positions, Namibia needed a late try to beat
Madagascar 24-17 to claim the Plate as Uganda knocked out the Black Stallions
of Nigeria 27-7 for the Bowl.
Vice President of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation,
Olatunji Fasimoye disclosed that the Black Stallions will be looking to
maintain a top 8 finish or go a step further to top 5 at the tournament.
“I think we are growing in Nigeria because in 2014, we
finished 12th while last year we were eight and this year we are hoping to make
it to the top five in the tournament. This goes to show that we want to
continue to improve on our performance.
"The Kenyan team is a strong side
because they have really invested in the sport. They are the favourite but we
are not going to look at that when we take them on as our target is to continue
to improve and this is also based on funding which we have been lacking.
"With
good funding, we can have good preparation and take part in more tournaments
but the team we are taking to Kenya is dominated by local-based players and we
hope they can make the country proud,” Fasimoye who also doubles as the
technical director of the federation said.
Also, captain of
Black Stallions, Azeez Ladipo believes with the quality of their training in
the last one week, they can improve on their previous outings in the
championship.
The top teams in
each group progress to the semifinal stage while others compete for
classification.
Backs: Azeez
Ladipo (Cowrie RFC, Lagos,) Ryan Misan Onwu (Aberystwyth Town RFC, UK), Joey
Etim (Barewa RFC, Kano), Alfred Oche (Cowrie RFC, Lagos), Sadam Abubakar (Zaria
RFC, Kaduna), Nuhu Ibrahim (Barewa RFC, Kano), Onoru Jatto (Cowrie RFC, Lagos)
Forwards: Samuel Ekpo (Cowrie
RFC, Lagos), Christian Ogar (Belhar RFC, South Africa), Chidera Iheme (Jos
RFC), ThankGod Okafor (Sharks RFC, South Africa), David Oyekanmi (Racing RFC,
Lagos).
Africa
Cup 2016 Pools
Pool A: Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal
Pool B: Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mauritius
Pool C: Morocco, Zambia, Madagascar
Pool D: Tunisia, Namibia, Botswana
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