The Nigerian Women’s Rugby League national team, the Green Falcons, qualified for the International Rugby League World Series final with a dominant 10-0 victory over Ireland at the Terry Fox Stadium, Brampton, Canada.
Fedelia Omoghan scored the Green Falcons’ first try in a close finish in the first half.
However, Australian-based Shondell Akhabue couldn’t score the conversion, keeping the scores at 4-0.
Ranked 17th in the world, the Green Falcons kept their cool, holding out to the end of the first half with a 4 – 0 lead over 8th-ranked Ireland.
The second half was spent in the Nigerian half, with Ireland pushing for a try, but Nigeria’s defense stood tall.
Green Falcons turned defense into attack as captain Rachael Illya picked a loose ball from 65 yards, evaded the Ireland defense, and ran all the way to score Nigeria’s second try.
Subsequently, Shondell Akhabue got the conversion on her second opportunity to increase Nigeria’s points to 10.
Reacting to the win, Shondel describes what she feels is the coming of age of women’s Rugby League in Nigeria and how she feels as a Diaspora representing the country.
“It means so much to nation itself. You can just tell by our reaction when that final whistle went. For me personally, I’m Australian based, I’m half Nigerian. I don’t really know my Nigerian culture but I didn’t think it was going to mean as much as it did when that whistle went. If I’m being completely honest, I just broke down in tears. It just meant so much to me.
“Just to see how happy I made the girls; how happy I made me. It made me feel something so whole inside. And it was just a blessing, a blessing to experience it, to still be experiencing it, and to move on to the next step. How was it to blend with a bunch of girls you never met before as Nigerians, and yet you all, you know, build a very strong unit.”
Team captain, Blessing Aladeyelu, expressed all the emotions the team went through to get to this stage of putting Nigeria on the map of world rugby league.
“There’s emotion everywhere. I feel so happy. Stressed, tired, weak, pain, but the victory that we had covers everything. So, I feel super excited. I feel happy. I feel blessed because this is a blessing to me. This is a blessing to the team. This is a blessing to Nigeria. Yeah, that’s my feeling.
“It was a big deal. It was a big deal because Ireland is a respected team. Ireland is big. They’ve been playing rugby league for years. Even before it was introduced to Nigeria, they’ve been playing rugby league. So, to get victory over Ireland, it’s really a big, big deal for me.
“To have all the girls come as a unit, seeing that you had some foreign-based from Australia, Canada, and the UK. Yeah, it wasn’t hard, I’ll say, because every one of us has one goal. And the goal is to make Nigeria proud. The goal is to put a name on the map, which is Nigeria, not our names, per se. The name Nigeria. want to put it in the rugby league map. So everybody, the whole world will know that, yes.”
Nigeria will play Fiji in the final of the IRL World Series after Fiji defeated Canada 48-0 in the second semi-final.
The Green Falcons will be without Blessing Umude for the final after picking up an injury in the Ireland game and was taken to the hospital.
Blessing Umude is out of the tournament.
The final winner will be the eighth and last team for the 2026 International Rugby League World Cup, scheduled for Australia and Papua New Guinea.
Nigeria’s Green Falcons are the champions of the Middle East and Africa region.
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