The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation has announced a 23-man list for a 2 weeks intensive camping exercise ahead of the pre-qualifiers for the 2019 Rugby World cup.
The two weeks exercise under the supervision of South African born coach, Fabian Juries will kick off on, 27th of June at the Mainbowl of the National stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
According to the list made available by the technical department of the federation, only 2 foreign based players in the persons of Christian Ogar and Okafor ThankGod both plying their trades in South Africa were invited to join their home based colleagues for the camping exercise.
Speaking with journalists in Lagos, Technical Director of the federation, Fasimoye Olatunji said, “Because of the standard of our league, we have been able to build our players to a standard where we believe that if we nurture them well, they can compete favorably anywhere in the world.”
“We expect that all the players that we have called to camp will resume to the national stadium by 4pm today.”
He thanked CMB Building, Investment and Maintenance Company for making the camping exercise possible and also for their unflinching support for the Sir Edward Fom Pam led NRFF as he called on other corporate bodies to partner with the federation in sponsoring the National teams for their international engagements.
The team which is expected to depart for Morocco on the 11th of July will take on Mauritius on the 13th before the all-important clash with the host country, Morocco on the 16th with all games to be played at the COC stadium.
“I think it’s a great deal for us because we are going to be playing a phase in the 2019 world cup qualifiers in Morocco.
Morocco being the host nation, it won’t be an easy task and that is why we are trying to prepare our boys in our own little way.
For Morocco, most of their players play in France and they are well funded, hence the need for the Black Stallions to have a 2 week camp.”
Meanwhile, the Team Doctor, Bukola Bojuwoye is monitoring the conditions of team captain, Azeez Ladipo ahead of the tournament following injury he suffered at the finals of the South West league.
He finally affirmed that, “Despite all the challenges being faced by the federation, we believe that everything is going to be fine.”
