A photo of the rugby players during one of their trainings
The Rugby League Federation Ghana is on the “right path to reach its heights” in the country, says the Technical Director of the federation, Marshall Nortey.
The rugby league since it’s inception in 2011 has seen enormous growth with the national team “The Leopards” qualifying for the first time for the 2023 MEA Rugby Cup which is a qualification process for the 2025 Rugby League World Cup to be hosted in France.
Marshall Nortey says reaching the 2025 World Cup would be a success for the federation next year.
“This year, 2022 has only been a transition for us, from the beginning stages of transition to a more active and intermediate stage.
“We are not there yet at all. We would only say that we are getting there when we get to the World Cup, which we are going to compete for slots in 2023 against the likes of South Africa and Nigeria in South Africa next year, 2023.”
“So, we only say that we are still on the way we are still on the path we are getting our books right. We are getting our developments right,” Marshall Nortey told AsaaseSports.
The Rugby League Federation next year is also looking to get the game inducted into the educational system of Ghana.
“We recently had a letter from the Ghana Education Service, introducing us to schools so that they would accept us or engage us in their Physical Education and extracurricular activities.”
“So yes, our development just started, all that we've been doing over the last few years was kind of breaking ground for us to get into schools. “Now we're going to get into schools proper and that is what we want to see in 2023. In 2022 development started, but proper 2023,” Marshall Nortey stated.
The Leopards are poised to reach the 2025 Rugby League World Cup.
Ghana hosted the 2022 Middle East Africa Rugby League Championship in October and qualified for the 2023 MEA Rugby cup which is the playoffs for the 2025 World Cup despite losing the title to defending champions Nigeria in the final.
The Leopards will start training for the October tournament in January 2023.
“In January training begins with the national team, we already have a chunk of the other boys around. If we start early, then we’re going to enter the tournaments on a high, where we know that the boys will be at their peak, to play and then get us to the World Cup 2025 in France.”
“I'm very confident that they will qualify for the World Cup. What happened in 2022 was a slight hiccup, which has to do with a bit of losing focus, that also we are working with our psychologists to work on the psyche of the boys and make sure that they are well-ready physically, mentally, psychologically, and get into the games.”
“We want to put up a tougher team than we even had in 2022 and with a tougher team, a better playing team we are sure to make it through,” he added.
