Dipo Olowookere
Nigeria’s national rugby team, Black Stallions, will not be at the Japan 2020 Olympic after failing to pick a ticket for the tournament.
The Nigeria Rugby Sevens Team had participated in the Africa Cup Sevens, which doubled as Japan 2020 Olympic qualifiers at the Bosman Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa over the weekend. It was their first appearance at the Africa Cup since 2016 following a ban on Nigeria by World Rugby in 2017.
The Stallions were impressive all through the match leading 14-12 at half time, but eventually lost the match 24-21 in favour of the Zimbabweans.
However, Nigeria finished the championship with a top 8 spot being the best looser of the first round of matches played. The Black Stallions entered the tournament as the last ranked team (14) and had to face defending champions Zimbabwe (1).
Seven matches were played early on Day 1 and the seven winners plus the best loser (Nigeria) advanced to the Championship phase of the tournament while the bottom six faced off in the Trophy phase.
The Stallions suffered injuries to Samuel Akpabio in the first match and lost steam and depth. They later went on to lose to Zimbabwe again, Madagascar, Zambia and Senegal.
Recall Nigeria were relegated in 2017 after a ban by World Rugby and had to play from the ground up for two years, beating Super 16 Champions; Niger Republic 59-13 in Niamey in August 2018 which qualified them into the Africa North Regional Sevens in Ivory Coast in September 2018 where they finished runners up (tournament’s best team) to earn a place in this year’s Africa Cup Sevens and also set up a 2023 World Cup Qualification match against Madagascar on December 1.
Kenya shrugged off Madagascar in the semi-final before beating Uganda in the final to pick up their second straight Olympic spot. Zimbabwe beat Madagascar in the third place play off and earn a place in a repêchage tournament to keep their Olympics hope alive.
South Africa did not take part as they have qualified for the Olympics automatically through last year’s HSBC Sevens Tournament
Nigeria’s top 8 finish means Nigeria has automatically qualified for next year’s Africa Cup Sevens / HSBC Sevens qualifiers.
Final ranking Final ranking Africa Men’s Sevens 2019:
1 Kenya – KE
2 Uganda – UG
3 Zimbabwe – ZW
4 Madagascar – MG
5 Namibia – NA
6 Zambia – ZM
7 Senegal – SN
8 Nigeria – NG
9 Ghana- GH
10 Morocco – MA
11 Tunisia – TN
12 Côte D’Ivoire – CI
13 Mauritius – MU
14 Botswana – BW
