Ghana names contingent for 2017 Africa Rugby Sevens Championship

The head coach of the national Rugby team Lovemore Kuzorera has named a 12 member squad for the 2017 Africa Rugby Sevens Championship to be staged in Kampala, Uganda from October 6 to October 7.

Ghana’s Rugby team, the Eagles, are the lowest ranked team in the championship and qualified for the championship after emerging winners in the West Africa qualifying tournament held in Ghana in April.

Ghana is in Group A alongside host Uganda, Tunisia, Morrocco and Zambia, whilst Group B is made up of Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Senegal and Mauritius.

The best two teams at the two day tournament will qualify automatically to the 2018 World Cup to be held in San Francesco in the United States, as well as the HSBC World Sevens Series in Hong Kong.

The winner also earns an invitation to the Dubai Sevens and Cape Town Sevens. South Africa and Kenya are the African teams that have already booked slots at next year’s World Cup because they reached the quarter final stage at the last World Cup event.

Uganda’s national team, Rugby Cranes, handled by former Kenyan international Tolbert Onyango are the defending champions of the Africa Sevens after beating Namibia in the finals last year.

The Ghana Rugby Football Union has dubbed the championship as ‘Mission Kamapala 2017’ and has since strengthened her squad for the tournament with three UK based players; Frank Sackey, Hamza Mohammed and Alexander Akoto.

Ghana’s team is made up of; Alex Dorpenyo, Alexander Akoto, Alhassan Sani, Aminu Nasiru, Calestus Bosoka, Emmanuel Kalos, Francis Donkor, Frank Sackey, Hamza Mohammed, Jalilu Yussif, Solomon Akumba, and Theophilus Opai.

Other members of the contingent are Lovemore Kuzorera (Head Coach), Clement Dennis (Assistant Coach), with technical support from Ludwiche van Deventer (Head Coach, All Stars Seven Academy, Pretoria- South Africa).

Abdul – Aziz Issah is the only Board member travelling with the team.

Ghana will play all her group matches on October 6 with Tunisia at 06:30, Uganda at 07:58, Zambia at 12:22 and Morocco at 13:50, all at local time.

Komatsu and Gino are sponsoring Ghana’s team to the tournament.

The team is expected to leave Accra on Tuesday, October 3, for Kampala.