UG Rugby Team Return From Casablanca
The University of Ghana rugby team loses the bowl final at the Casablanca Sevens due to weather, but leaves a lasting legacy in Morocco.
On Monday 26th March, the University of Ghana, alongside The Ghana Rugby Association, sent 15 individuals to Morocco for the Casablanca 7’s for the second year running. The party consisted of 12 players and 3 support staff, pitted against teams from Britain, France, Tunisia and South Africa.
The team fought not only against these teams but a change in weather and culture, leaving Morocco’s capital with heads held high after winning the hearts of the opposition with their vibrant attitude towards this growing sport.
After putting in a strong showing in their opening game against Paris, coming back from a 24 point deficit to finish at 24-12, the team played a Moroccan Team; Agadir. The team suffered from poor structure and poor discipline to slip into a second consecutive defeat of 31-5.
These two losses put Ghana into the bowl competition where the team would have to correct the mistakes made in the previous matches. The match, against home side University de Casablanca, proved a dominant affair with Ghana putting in a strong performance dominated by strong forward play with the 19-5 result not doing the Ghana squad justice.
This result placed Ghana into the final the following day and the team looked to continue from the momentum gained from their previous win. This unfortunately would not be the case as poor weather heavily contributed to Ghana letting 24 unanswered points accumulate. Despite dominating the 2nd half, Ghana could not get back into the game finishing 24-10.
The results left a lot to be desired, but a lot of this trip was conducted away from the rugby pitch. Ghana heavily contributed to the atmosphere of the tournament, being praised by tournament organisers for their improvement from last year and were presented with 6 rugby balls by the University of Edinburgh to help promote the sport of rugby in Ghana.
The team flew back to Ghana content with their showing, after winning the respect and praise of all they came across, and will look for further improvement at next year’s tournament.
Words by David Kitt
Squad: Adjiri Jonas, Mustapha Awudu Jafaru, Alex Antwi, Philip Asomani, Avormey Solomon, Richard Koranteng, Blackman Bulla Ralph, Segbefia A. Prince, Kalu Obinna, Joshua Akornor, Marshall Nortey (Captain) and, David Kitt
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