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Black Stallions begin campaign for Tokyo 2020 Olympics, meet Zimbabwe today

By Alex Monye
08 November 2019   |   3:39 am
Nigeria's national team, Black Stallions, will this morning (8.00 a.m.) battle with Zimbabwe in their opening game of the Africa Men’s Rugby Sevens Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Black Stallions Sevens will begin their quest to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games when they battle with Zimbabwe in South Africa…today.<br />

Nigeria’s national team, Black Stallions, will this morning (8.00 a.m.) battle with Zimbabwe in their opening game of the Africa Men’s Rugby Sevens Championship in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The game, which is seen as one of the toughest matches in the competition because of Zimbabwe’s status as the defending champions of the championship, is expected to draw many lovers of the game to the venue.
 
As part of efforts to ensure the team excelled in the competition, the Black Stallions had a friendly tie with a South African club, Centurion 7s yesterday.

 
Nigeria’s Coach, Bronson Weir, who yesterday announced the final list of players for the tournament, said his players were poised for the battle and also win all their matches at the championship.

The Africa Sevens tournament will hold today and tomorrow at the Bosman Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The tourney will feature 14 teams, including Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Zambia, Tunisia, Senegal, Morocco, Namibia, Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria.

The winner will qualify for the Olympics Games in Tokyo, Japan in 2020.

Speaking ahead of the Zimbabwe encounter, Black Stallions’ Team Manager, Dele Coker, said his team have had the best preparations to come out victorious in South Africa.

“The boys have worked hard over the last two and a half weeks, but we have had to replace a few players due to injuries sustained whilst on club duty. These are Thankgod Okafor- Portugal (Ankle)  and Alex Onyeahasi- Germany (Harmstring).

“Coach Bronson was at Chester, U.K. to have a look at the U.K-based boys at the AF International 7s where Nigeria played against U.S., France, Ireland, and Jamaica.

“We have injected a few of those boys from that competition into this squad. We look forward to seeing what the team can produce over the weekend,” Coker said.

The team arrived at Johannesburg via Kenya Airways on Wednesday.

The Black Stallions squad will be captained by Onoru Jatto with Azeez Ladipo, Nuhu Ibrahim, Declan Nwachukwu, David Oyekanmi, Isaac Agholor, Samuel Ekpo, Joshua Etim, Akpabio Samuel, Blaise Felix, Chinedu Joseph and Felix Maduchem making up the squad.

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