Rugby League Federation Ghana

History & Inception of Rugby League in Ghana 2012 - 2014

Rugby League Federation Ghana
Founded6 April 2014
ResponsibilityGhana

In 2011, The Rugby League European Federation (RLEF) selected Ghana as the pilot West African project, due to the RLEF’s partnership with UK Sport International (the British government agency charged with international sports development, which in 2011-13 was implementing international leadership programmes in Ghana, through its partner institution University of Ghana) and acquisition of a sponsor involved in professional Rugby League in England.


In March 2012, the RLEF embarked on a fact-finding trip to Ghana. One of the objectives was to hire a member of staff to manage the project with Sylvester Wellington being engaged as a consultant and Development Manager in June 2012. In August of 2012, Sylvester Wellington was flown to England to receive coach and match official (MO) education and to generally be exposed to as much Rugby League as possible.


November 2012 saw the RLEF, in tandem with the Rugby Football League (RFL) deploy a three-man technical RFL employee delegation team of Martin Crick (Coach Educator) Andy Gilvary (Development Officer) and Danny McNeice (Match Officials) to Accra to deliver coach and MO training to locals as part of the wider development strategy to begin a club and schools’ competition. Over 50 attendees participated in the week-long event. A number of volunteers from Nigeria also attended the course as observers.

The UK based National Team players presented with their jerseys in London 2019


In 2013 Rugby League was then introduced to circa 20 schools, with the RLEF providing 200 balls and kit to the aid in resourcing the program and assist Ghana Rugby League embed themselves in the local community. February 2013 saw the first organised Rugby League matches played in Ghana (in UG as part of a UKSI seminar) with an agreement to send the GB Student Pioneers team to Ghana in the summer of 2014 to further promote the sport and strengthen ties with this new Rugby League nation.


On the 6th July at the El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra, a Ghana ‘All Stars’ team played against the Great Britain Student Pioneers, the pioneers victorious by 48-10.


Rugby League Federation Ghana

The National Governing Body, Ghana Rugby League, was inaugurated on 6 April 2014 in Accra and became an Observer of the RLEF on 7 August 2014. Ghana Rugby League became Rugby League Federation Ghana on December 17, 2015. In March 2016 the First University of Ghana Rugby League Inter-Hall Games were presented between Legon Hall,  Liman Hall,  Akuafo Hall,  Mensah Sabah and the International Students Hostel.

The Ghana National Rugby League Team and the Middle East Africa Rugby League Championships 2019

The Middle East Africa Rugby League Championships 2019

In 2019, the Ghana National Rugby League team were selected to partake in the Middle East Africa Rugby League Championship to be hosted in Lagos Nigeria from October 3-6, the hosts being Nigeria Rugby League. After an initial training camp at the University of Ghana, a travelling squad of 20 players and 6 staff made their way to Nigeria on Tuesday 1 October. On Wednesday 2 October, the Ghana National team made history competing in their first ever sanctioned international test match V Nigeria. Nigeria, who went on to be crowned MEA Champions won that contest 24-10.

Ghana Rugby League National Team prior to their game V Cameroon at the MEA Championships, Lagos, Nigeria, October 2019


On Saturday October 5, 2019, both Ghana and Cameroon’s National Rugby League teams again made history when they competed in the first sanctioned international between the 2 nations. Both Ghana and Cameroon were defeated by Nigeria and Morocco respectively in the first round of the Championships, continuing on to the Bronze medal match, Ghana securing victory in the last minutes of the game 10 – 4.  

The final placing results of the 2019 MEA Championships for both Ghana and Cameroon resulted in neither team being eligible for the 2020 MEA Championships to be held in Pretoria, South Africa from October 13-17 2020. The 4 nations in attendance will be Nigeria (current champions), Morocco (runners up), South Africa (hosts) and Lebanon

Ghana Rugby League Domestic Competition

    The domestic 9s

    After the success of the 2019 13s Championship, the 9s edition was introduced for the 2020 season which started in January. Currently four clubs namely Bulls Rugby League Club, Skolars Ghana Rugby league Club, Pirates Ghana Rugby League Club and Accra Panthers Rugby League Club have been displaying dexterity, wit and will in the fast pace version of the game.

    London 9s

    This tournament organised in 2019, had heritage player from both Ghana and Nigeria making up a team. to represent West Africa. This helped reunite players like Marcus Alexander And Reece Rance with the National team for the MEA in Nigeria.

    References


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