March 8, 2019
Rugby – Nigeria “potentially” second only to South Africa – Azeez Ladipo
Nigeria potentially have the second best Rugby national team in Africa behind South Africa’s Spring Bucks, Black Stallions captain Azeez “Zaza” Ladipo has told brila.net.
The Springboks won the Rugby world cup in 1995 and 2007 and remain still the only African Team to have achieved the feat, the South African team are also the highest ranked African team in the sport (5th in the world) but Ladipo believes Nigeria may not be too far behind SA.
“The problem Rugby has just had is the ability to bring our best players together. Football does it; brings all the best players and camp them.
Basketball has started doing the same, Rugby just needs to be able to do the same; bring all the best players, let them play together and win for Nigeria.
I think that we’re potentially next to South Africa in Rugby, we just need to be able to have the financial muscle to bring all our guys in; because this thing requires lots of funding.”
Coaches of the Super Eagles have lowered the standard of the team and it is hurting the quality of football the team plays, according to former Eagles midfielder Friday Elahor.
The golden era of Nigeria football was highlighted by the success of the 1994 squad, and then Coach Clemens Westerhoff ensured a strict adherence to the criteria for selection of players.
In a chat with brila.net Elahor argued that by dropping the bar and capping players from lower divisions in European leagues over the years, it had affected the strength and fear factor of the Eagles.
MFM FC forward Adeniji Kabir Adewole has expressed confidence in the team’s quality to fight to stay top and avoid a second half of the season meltdown.
Despite losing several top name players, MFM FC are currently top group A in the NPFL and have played some fantastic football to show a sign of consistency with Fidelis Ilechukwu’s managerial master stroke, however there is also the concern of fatigue in the latter part of the season, with such a young and inexperienced squad.
So far, Adeniji has proven a be a marksman, scoring goals for team and he told brila.net that he’d rather focus on his improving his performance than worry about a capitulation.