Africa Cup 7s: Black Stallions to play Tunisia in classification ranking

By Akeem Lawal

NIGERIA'S national rugby team, the Black Stallions will on Saturday by 11:56 am play against Tunisia in a semi-final classification ranking match of the Africa Cup 7s tournament after recording a win and a draw in their opening games on Friday.

The Black Stallions lost their opening match to host country, Kenya 33-5 at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi, but bounced back in their second game to beat Senegal 36-5 in their second game of the Pool A to place 6^th on the overall rankings after Day 1 with 4 points.

The semi final pairing of the two-day tournament will see Kenya who defeated Nigeria and went on to beat Senegal 31-0 to finish top of the Pool A play the winner of Pool B, Uganda, while the winner of Pool C, Madagascar will tackle Pool D winner, Namibia.

In the semis to avoid relegation, Botswana will take on Mauritius by 11:12 am and Zambia play Senegal by 11:34 am, while Zimbabwe will play Morocco by 12:18 pm and Nigeria will take on Tunisia in the ranking semi-finals.

The Black Stallions will fancy their chances of beating the Tunisians and keep their aim of finishing in the top five ranking to better their 8th position which they achieved in Johannesburg last year.

Speaking on the team’s target  before leaving for the competition, the President of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation, NRFF, Sir Edward Fom said, “First of all, we want to measure up to our rankings of the last time which was eight. We placed eight last year in the African rankings in Johannesburg. The manual tells us that the first two go up to the HSBC World Series and the last two out of the total 12 teams, get relegated to play in regional championships before they can qualify for African Continental championships. 

“So moving forward, our target obviously will be to see if we can get within top five of the 12 nations that are playing which is achievable. Then look to the fact that the spoiler will be that we must maintain the eight position which we came last year,” Sir Fom told Sportsbiz247.blogspot.com.

Rankings after day 1:

1. Madagascar (6points)

2. Kenya (6points)

3. Uganda (6points)

4. Namibia (6points)

5. Zimbabwe (4points)

6. Nigeria (4points)

7. Tunisia (4points)

8. Morocco (4points)

9. Botswana (2points)

10. Zambia (2points)

11. Senegal (2points)

12. Mauritius (2points)

Semis to avoid relegation:

11:12 am Botswana v Mauritius

11:34 am Zambia v Senegal

Ranking semi-finals:

11:56 am Nigeria v Tunisia

12:18 pm Zimbabwe v Morocco

Semis Pairings:

12:40 pm Madagascar v Namibia

1:02 pm Kenya v Uganda

Round 1 results:

Tunisia 5 - 17 Namibia

Morocco 0 - 19 Madagascar

Zimbabwe 14 - 19 Uganda

Kenya 33 - 5 Nigeria

Round 2 results:

Botswana 7 - 19 Namibia

Zambia 0 - 40 Madagascar

Mauritius 7 - 35 Uganda

Senegal 5 - 36 Nigeria

Round 3 results:

Tunisia 19 - 7 Botswana

Morocco 22 - 12 Zambia

Zimbabwe 54 - 0 Mauritius

Kenya 31 - 0 Senegal