Nigeria to host West African Rugby Series (WARS) 2020
The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF) has disclosed that the country will host the African Rugby Championship, as well as the 2020 President’s Cup later in the year
LAGOS, Nigeria, February 5, 2020 - Addressing journalists at the weekend in Lagos on the side lines of their Board meeting, NRFF (
) president, Kelechukw Mbagwu said the body decided to host the tournament to create more awareness for the sport in Nigeria as well as expose the players to test matches with top Rugby Nations in West Africa. He promised that the federation will strive to host more internationalchampionships in 2020, adding that they were mapping out plans to reposition Rugby in Nigeria.
Mbagwu also added that NRFF was delighted that Rugby will make a return to the National Sports Festival in Edo State after a 10 year absence.
“The Black Stallions won the President Cup last year in Ghana and Rugby Africa gave Nigeria the nod to host this championships to boost Rugby development in the country. “The NRFF’s focus is to continue promoting Rugby in Nigeria this year and to this end, the Rugby Union League will kick off after the National Sports Festival. “I can assure you that plans are also in place to have Women's Rugby Sevens League and the Men's Sevens Circuit in the country.”
Speaking on former Technical Director, Ntiense Williams who was sacked last year, Mbagwu said,“We have received a letter from the Ministry of Sports to look into the matter and seek for a way to resolve the issue. “But at this point, it should be brought to notice that Williams is an employee of NRFF and the body has the right to sack any of its stafffound guilty of any misconduct. “Any issue regarding the former technical director will be discussed when the committee brings out its report. At this point Williams remains sacked,” he said.
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Rugby Africa (www.RugbyAfrique.com) is the governing body of rugby in Africa and one of the regional associations under World Rugby. It unites all African countries that play rugby union, rugby sevens, and women’s rugby. Rugby Africa organizes various competitions, including the qualifying tournaments for the Rugby World Cup and the Africa Sevens, a qualifying competition for the Olympic Games. With 39 member unions, Rugby Africa is dedicated to promoting and developing rugby across the continent. World Rugby highlighted Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia as three of the six emerging nations experiencing strong growth in rugby.
