Women’s rugby glow in success

Ghana’s Rugby chiefs are celebrating in the success of staging the International Rugby Association (IRB)/Confederation of African Rugby (CAR) Women’s 7’s Tournament. The two-day event involving seven African countries ended at the El-Wak Stadium last Saturday with Ghana counting the plusses derived from the competition after the Golden Pearls, the nation’s female Rugby team came 3rd. According to Madam Gifty Annan-Myers, Chairperson of the Ghana Rugby Association (GRA), the tournament has helped expose the game of rugby to Ghanaians especially females. She indicated that the GRA now had a chaperon who will travel with the girls and that has solved the problem of promoting the game amongst women in Ghana.

She added that the competition which took place in West Africa for the first time, has provided the platform for the sport’s promotion and development in the country. “We are very glad that we have been able to bring a rugby tournament for women into town and Ghanaians have witnessed first-hand that women can also play the sport. It is very good for the image of the sport and one that we believe has laid firm foundations for the participation of more girls in rugby and the Golden Pearls are here to stay,” a very elated Ms. Annan-Myers told The National Star after the tournament’s closing ceremony. The IRB sponsored the competition with $12,000 with a lot of support from government as well as PriceWaterHouseCoopers, Voltic Mineral Water, Muscatella drinks by ABL and Mirage Royale Hotel. Not only are the authorities rejoicing, the girls who represented Ghana in the competition are themselves overwhelmed by the experience and are looking into the future with hope. Juliet Adzraku, Rafatu Inusah, winger Sakina Umar, Faustina Sokpor and fly-half Aisha Tahiru were some of the names to do battle for Ghana and have indicated their determination to improve on their performances. “I am happy and it is a great feeling. We just had about two weeks training for this tournament and we are happy to come third. But we want to train and work very hard and we will also pray to God so that next year we will win gold,” Aisha Tahiru said to The National Star with the bronze medal earned for third place dangling from her neck at the tender age of 15

Amuzu-Loh K. N. Salim, coach of Ghana’s Rugby teams praised the young girls for their performance in the competition. He pointed out that girls had never played in a competition of this nature and have thus done very well. It is an experience he believes will help rugby very much in Ghana. “It will lift expectations and also competition in the country. Now many other young girls have seen their peers play and earn these medals, next year more girls are also going to fight to be in the team. That can only help Ghana develop more players,” Coach Salim disclosed heartily.

Tunisia emerged the overall winners of the competition beating the remaining field with ease. In a swashbuckling fashion, the North Africans started by thrashing the Golden Pearls 34-0 in the opener and ending in similar style with a 43-5 demolishing of Nigeria who had defeated Ghana 17-0 in the semi finals. The Golden Pearls defeated Morocco 5-0 in the match for third place after the Moroccans had lost 47-0 to Tunisia in the semi finals. Burkina Faso came 5th, Togo 6th and Egypt placing 7th. Cote d’Ivoire, which should have completed the 8-nation line-up failed to make the tournament.