Edo State rugby coach and renowned advocate for the sport in Nigeria, Obong Ntiense Williams has called for better attention and support for the participation of women in the physically demanding and gritty discipline.
Sports247 reports that Williams (aka Mr Rugby) made the frenetic call based on observations of Nigeria’s absence at the ongoing West & North Africa women’s championship in Tunisia.
The highly resourceful crusader also noted the absence of rugby in general from events at the National Sports Festival, which he described as Nigeria’s Olympic Games, and urged an immediate change.
He recalled that Nigeria featured in the inaugural North and West African Women’s Rugby Tournament in Ghana in 2009, after which the country’s presence in mainstream African women’s rugby has declined.
At the 2024 All Africa Games in Ghana, the national women’s rugby team lost all group matches, including to Ghana; a nation Nigeria supported in developing its rugby programme in 2008.
Williams faulted the omission of rugby from the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Enugu State, even after National Sports Commission (NSC) director-general, Bukola Olopade attempted to include it at the last edition in Ogun State.
Back then, Directors of Sports from various states across the country stood up against Olopade and removed rugby on technical grounds, citing missed pre-festival team sports eliminations, but Williams is calling for a review.
He stated, “We’re asking the National Sports Commission to include every Olympic sport in the National Sports Festival. This is the country’s premier multi-sport event. It’s where every state gets a chance to compete for recognized national medals.”
