POOL A REPECHAGE: GHANA WINS THIRD-PLACE

Unlike their semi-final loss to Zambia on Thursday, Ghana made the most of their blistering start today to settle the West African duel with Nigeria.

With five almost identical changes on each side, three up front and two at the back, the match got off to a very slow start with the first ten minutes showing a lot of technical errors on both sides. Fouls on the Ghanaian side and poor clearances from Omyehasi (10) on the Nigerian side.

From the 12th minute onwards, the Ghanaian Eagles took off, a penalty played by hand from their 22 by Kofi Appiah (10). The ball fell to third row Eugene Appiah (8) on the right wing who burst through the green defence and flattened the ball behind the line, Appiah converting 7-0.

Two minutes later the Ghanaians broke the deadlock with a succession of rucks. Scrum-half Botchi passed the ball to his opener Appiah who, with a top hat, perfectly launched his right-winger Abdul Jalilu Yussif who deposited the ball between the posts, a try again converted by Appiah (14-0).

The Nigerians reacted in the 23rd minute with a try in the Ghanaian 22. Played quickly, the ball passed through all the players in the three-quarter line before arriving in the arms of left winger Jonathan Ilori, who scored in the corner and missed the conversion 14-5.

The Nigerians continued to press in the Ghanaian half, but in the 28th minute a ball snatched from their 22-yard line allowed the Ghanaians to take the lead thanks to a 70-metre run by Abdul Jalilu, who scored his second try of the match and was converted by Appiah 21-5.

The rest of the match was heated on both sides before Anthony Egodo (13) scored a try in the last minute of the match for Nigeria's honour, which Illub converted for a final score of 24-19 for Ghana.