Ibom Rugby rumbles at Niger Delta Sports Festival

The beautiful game of rugby will be highly celebrated at the 1st Niger Delta Sports Festival which will be held from April 1st to 9th in Uyo as no medals event.

The side event which is tagged Ibom Rugby Rumble will feature both the men’s and women’s rugby teams participating in Seven’s Rugby. This will be competed for by four Niger Delta states namely Abia, Rivers, Imo and the host Akwa Ibom.

The coordinator of the event Obong Ntiense Williams (Mr Rugby), said on Saturday, “We will be featuring a one day rugby demonstration tagged Ibom Rugby Rumble during the Niger Delta Sports Festival in Uyo on Wednesday 2nd April. The venue is at the Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Ibiaku Itam II, Calabar Itu High Way, Itu Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State.”

The Secretary of the Akwa Ibom State Rugby Association, Mr David Onyebuchi said, “This programme was initially planned to help rebrand Rugby Football in this state which has in the past performed well at the National Sports Festival and National Youth Games Rugby events. We are now pushing the Catch Them Young Schools Programme which has yielded some remarkable results for us at the National Youth Games lately”

Said Williams, “In as much as Rugby was not one of the selected 17 Sports to feature at the first edition, we belief that we will be considered for the next edition next year given the pedigree of the game in the Niger Delta Region of the country.”

Rugby is a very familiar sports in the Niger Delta States namely Edo, Delta, Rivers, Ondo, Imo, Abia, Cross River, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom which are all rugby playing states. Between Edo, Delta and Rivers States, they have won the highest number of gold medals in all the Rugby events in Nigeria and in all the Rugby versions namely 15’s, 10’s and 7’s.

Edo State is presently the South South Zonal Champions in both the men and women’s 15’s version, whilst it’s women are the back-to-back National Seven’s Champions.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation President Dr Ademola Are gave his backing for a job well done by the organisers and further encouraged them to do more for the beautiful game of Rugby which is fast rising again in the country.