NRFF President, Kelechukwu Mbagwu.
• Black Stallions battle for Commonwealth Games ticket in October
As part of efforts to create a sustainable development of rugby, the new board of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF) has opened discussions with the English Premier League and the South Africa Rugby Football Union (SARFU) on the capacity building programmes for players and coaches.
The new NRFF board’s President, Kelechukwu Mbagwu, who disclosed the new foray into international cooperation with the rugby giants, noted that this move would enable the country learn from more experienced nations on the tenets of the sport.
The CMB chairman said he was focused on focus recruiting quality coaches for the national teams, reviving the Northern League and also launching the NRFF website in three months. He revealed that plans were on to build an ultra modern state of the art rugby stadium to encourage more people take part in the sport, adding that his federation would focus on the development of officers and conduct refresher courses for members of the technical crew.
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On the CMB Rugby League, the president assured that the welfare of players and drive for more sponsors for the league would be his priority interest, adding that organising and nurturing talents from the grassroots would get more attention.
Mbagwu promised that rugby would be taken to over 20 states of the country within his first 12 months in office, stressing that a Get into Rugby programme would be officially launched soon.
He assured Nigerian players that only the best would be picked for international engagements, saying that the era of using quota system to choose players was in the past.
“Rugby in Nigeria needs to be promoted to the highest level and this is why the NRFF is working hard to partner the English FA and South Africa l Rugby league body. Working with these countries would give the players enough experience to be one of the best in Africa and the World.
“We are still talking to the state government to give the Federation land to build Rugby stadium. Within a few months Nigeria will be hosting the Independence 7s Rugby Championship. We also have plans way to ensure the national team produces a formidable team that would take part in the Uganda Africa 7s in October, which is a tourney that could qualify Nigeria for next year’s Commonwealth Games,” he said
Source: G Sport
