Nigeria Rugby has announced the appointment of South African Bronson Weir as head coach of the senior Men’s Rugby National Team, the Black Stallions.
This was announced on Thursday at a world press conference chaired by the rugby body’s president, Kelechukwu Mbagwu, following the re-admittance of Nigeria into the international scene by Rugby Africa.
Bronson’s first assignment will be to lead the Black Stallions to the international friendly against Niger Republic in Niamey on the 11th of August. The friendly game is seen by many as symbolic because it will be the first activity of the federation on the international scene after their election and inauguration in 2017.
Mbagwu also announced that Nigeria will be participating at the 2018 Africa Rugby Regional Sevens in Ivory Coast between the 15th and 16th of September during the press conference to mark the board’s one year in office. Meanwhile, the federation has opened its Rugby House at 18, Ayinde Giwa street, Surulere, Lagos for the smooth daily operations of rugby affairs in Nigeria.
“To this end, Mike Archer has been appointed as the General Manager of the NRFF. He is going to take over the day to day running of rugby and seasoned administrators will work under him.”
The president also announce the appointment of Martin Crawfor as the Elite Rugby Director and assured that the recent move is geared towards putting the end to an era where not much was achieved.
Going forward, activities of the federation and its players will be documented. He added: “The latest landmark is part of our plan for a comprehensive data base of rugby players in the country and embark on our Get Into Rugby program fully. This will put an end to an era of no records which has continued to kill the game in Nigeria.”
Bronson Weir worked from 2008 to 2011 with the South African Students Sevens team in different capacities. He started as assistant coach and manager of the team in 2008. In 2010, he was appointed as head coach for the SA Students team for 2010 and 2011. As coach, Bronson won the Casablanca Sevens competition in 2010 and 2011. During the SA Students team’s participation in the Central Sevens competition in France, the team won in 2010 and finished second in 2011. As coach, Bronson worked with players such as Okkie Kruger, Justin Geduld, Cheslin Kolbe and Jamba Ulengo, who are now playing on the HSBC Sevens World Series and have played either Varsity Cup, Vodacom Cup and Super Rugby.
Nigeria participated in the C.A.R (Confederation of Africaine Rugby) in Marrakesh, Morocco on 24–25 September 2011. In the pool stages they defeated Senegal and Burkina Faso but were beaten by hosts Morocco, however they still progressed to the semi finals where they were to face regular IRB participants, Tunisia. Nigeria were beaten in the semi finals by a very experienced Tunisian team, however pride was restored in the 3rd/ 4th place playoff against Ivory Coast, where they came from behind in the second half to force the game into sudden death extra time where a last minute try by Craig Olugbode gave the victory to the Nigerian team. This meant Nigeria qualified for the All Africa 7s tournament in September 2012 which was the African regional ranking and qualifying tournament for the Rugby World Cup 7s in Russia in 2013.
In the African regional RWC 7s qualifier held again in Morocco on 29 and 30 September 2012 the Nigeria 7s team finished third overall and just missed out on RWC qualification. Failure to beat Madagascar in the group game despite dominating the match meant that Nigeria would play tournament favourites Zimbabwe in the semi final rather than Tunisia. Nigeria lost 19-14 and Zimbabwe went on to beat Tunisia 31-7 in the final. Nigeria had the chance to redeem themselves however and beat Madagascar 20-12 in the 3rd/4th place playoff leaving them 5th ranked in Africa and the 3rd ranked African Commonwealth member.
Nigeria 7s qualified to participate at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland. They were drawn alongside Canada, hosts Scotland and all-time Commonwealth champions Newzealand but the team was shockingly withdrawn by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) without clarifications as to why such a decision was made. A decision which according to IRB’s Mark Egan “Is disappointing for the Nigerian rugby team and their Rugby Union. There is a chance to get going with their Rugby 7s surge as the team will be competing at the Africa Men 7s in September 2014 in Kenya with the likes of South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Madagascar, Tunisia, Morocco, Ivory Coast and Zambia.”
The team finished in eight place at The Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens Olympic Qualifiers at the Barnard Stadium in Kempton Park, Johannesburg on Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th of November, 2015. injuries and knocks to five members of the team affected their overall performance as captain; Azeez Ladipo injured his shoulder in the early minutes of the first game and they managed him through some matches. Nuhu Samaila, Ike Onwukanjo, Onyinye Onwukanjo, Hafis Ayinla; were also injured leaving the team with one substitute in the last two matches. Coach Fabian Juries explained that the team improved from their 2014 outing where they placed eleventh and says there is room for more improvement. “We set a quarter final target and the boys met it but going forward, we need to work on strength and conditioning of the team and ensure they play together in more tournaments”.