NRFF Count Gains of 2014

The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation under the leadership of Sir Edward Fom Pam has described 2014 as a successful year considering the achievement recorded by the national team, local clubs as well as grass roots developmental programs for players and coaches.

According to the president of the new NRFF board inaugurated in November, 2013, the outgoing year has witnessed so many tremendous and unprecedented achievements in the history of the sport not just on the pitch of play but also administratively.

Speaking with journalists, Fom Pam said "to ensure that the federation cares for its members, we have created a database that captured all clubs, officials and player’s details. That has provided us with an accurate yardstick for planning and measurement of growth."

The seasoned sports administrator expressed immense joy over the repositioning of the regional leagues which have grown to become one of the biggest leagues in Africa with eight teams in the South West, four in the South East/South South league and six in the Northern league with the regional winners featuring in the Super league to determine the national champion.

In the same vein, The Technical Director of the Federation, Fasimoye Olatunji buttressed the sentiments shared by the president “ two Sevens tournament was staged this year, with Liliker sevens in the North and Independence sevens in the south west we hope to establishing more in other regions to improve the standard of Rugby in Nigeria"

Fasimoye also highlighted the grass root development programs of the federation prompted by the Get into rugby which is an initiative of the International Rugby Board. The program launch was attended by 50 coaches and 35 teachers from eight states.

The eight states includes; Lagos, Ondo, Edo, Delta, Plateau, Kaduna, Abia and Imo state) which represented all the regions and the program was administered by Mohamed Dermouni (Regional Development Officer) with materials delivered to the NRFF by the GIR Regional Development officer to kick start the program, the grants we received from IRB for the program was also committed in acquiring more GIR training materials. "At the moment, over 75 schools have registered for the program"

"The NOC/IOC staged a solidarity coaching course in Nigeria recently, the Level 1 coaching course which was organized as solidarity and developmental strategy for Olympic sports was attended by 19 coaches from every region of the country, the programme was facilitated by Bright Chivandire a technical representative of IRB from Zimbabwe."

At the national level, the senior national team also known as Black Stallions predominantly consisting of home base players featured in the African cup 1c in Gaborone, Botswana where they came fourth.
The team captained by Azeez Ladipo also took part in the African Sevens Tournament held in Harare, Zimbabwe where they finished 11th on the log.

The president while defending the federation's stance of using the home grown players despite having a pool of rugby players in Abroad expresses belief that "this was done in a bid to engage the local based players in order to measure the actual level of rugby development in Nigeria."

"This gave the players exposure, experience, courage to face any opposition, hope for a better tomorrow and the needed motivation to forge ahead and become better players."

It must be noted that the board made use of little resources at their disposal to engage National players on high performance training and employed the service of Fabian Juries a South African rugby legend in November as the new head coach of the Black Stallions. Fabian Juries led the team to the African Sevens Championship in Harare Zimbabwe. 

On his part, Fom Pam revealed that “We brought in two Rugby legends from south Africa (Breyton Paulse and Danie Gerber) to help promote the sport in Nigeria. This gave NRFF the opportunity to projects its plans and vision for the next four years and also to seek for sponsorship."

He believes that the impressive turnout of expatriates at the Independence Sevens Tournament and the voluntary hosting of the Black Stallions sevens team to a dinner by the expatriate community are dividends of the event coupled with a working partnership with vibrant media partners at home and abroad.