NRFF president upbeat, as Black Stallions depart for Zambia

The Nigeria Rugby national team, Black Stallions, made up of 21 home-based and two foreign-based players will depart today for Zambia aboard Kenya Airlines ahead of the Rugby Africa Cup 1C Championship, which holds in the Southern African country next week.

The team, comprising 23 players and three officials, will train for one-week in Zambia to get ready for the competition.

According to the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF), the team, to be led by the federation’s president, Sir. Edward Pam, is departing early for Zambia to adequately prepare for all its competitions.

Pam stated that the leadership of the federation is delighted by the recent success of the national team by qualifying for the All Africa Games scheduled to hold later this year in Congo. But he also declared that the federation needed to strive hard in ensuring the recent successes are consolidated.

The federation disclosed that CMB Building Maintenance & Investment Company is sponsoring the team to the competition due to the importance it attached to the competition.

The winner of the tournament will gain promotion to Division 1B, which is another giant step towards the federation’s target for the Fabian Juries led team.

“The federation has learnt a lot from last year’s experience in Botswana where the national team failed to gain promotion from the 1C division due to inadequate preparation. The team struggled with the high-altitude condition which made qualification difficult,” he said.

According to information made available by Rugby Africa, the four-day competition scheduled between June 21 and 24 will feature Zambia, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, currently playing in the 1A division, were drafted in place of
Cameroun, who withdrew from the competition.

The Black Stallions will slug it out with Zambia on the opening day of the competition and the game has been described as a game that will determine who gains promotion to Division 1B. They will also battle Zimbabwe on June 24.