Africa Men’s Sevens: Nigeria Stallions Stumble In Madagascar
The Nigeria Stallions faltered at the Africa Men’s Sevens 2024 tournament on Saturday, winning one of three matches on Day One of the Africa Men’s Sevens tournament at the Labourdonnais Stadium in Port-Louis, Mauritius.
They made a bright start by thrashing Madagascar 34-14, but slumped to 25-0 and 24-5 defeats to Kenya and Mauritius in the second and third matches, respectively, and failed to advance to the quarterfinals.
“We’ve battled hard despite both captains being injured and the team still gelling together. Some newly joined players have shown promise, while others are still adapting. Onward and upward,” the Nigeria Rugby Federation reacted on its social media handles on Saturday.
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As expected, the two favoured teams, Kenya and South Africa, although they are not remotely at full strength and still have a third round to play, have already secured their places in today’s quarterfinals.
Uganda and Madagascar are in the same position after the four teams won their second-round matches.
Again, the Kenyans were impressive in their 25-0 win over Nigeria, who never came to grips with the Kenyans’ play.
Kenya, like South Africa, has qualified for the Olympics and the top HSBC Sevens series, and to date they seemed a cut above the other as the most impressive team with their straight-running and support.
South Africans, although they have five capped Blitzboks in their team, had to include several players from the Varsity Cup competition who are keen to play Sevens rugby. They were better in the second match, although interplay and a lack of a bigger mobile pack seemed to hamper their aspirations somewhat.
The South African side deserved their win but should have put away Zimbabwe a little easier than the 19-10 with which they won.
Uganda steamrollered over Tunisia (43-0) and seemed a good bet to fight it out for the honours, although the Tunisians were not a real test that Uganda would rely on after the runaway win.
Madagascar, who beat the much-improved and more confident-looking home side Mauritius 33-28, also did a lot of their basics right and should not be ignored as a walkover in the play-offs.
