Nick Mallet: Nigeria Rugby Football Federation Needs Players of Size, Speed and Strength.

The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation,NRFF, has shed light on the reason for inviting one of the world’s most respected international rugby coaches, Nick Mallett, to share his twenty odd years of experience  with a select group of schools rugby coaches at a clinic in Lagos.

Its Vice President, Akin Akintola, said  the essence of inviting Nick Mallett to Nigeria was to help the nation's rugby  coaches at the grassroot level to produce a crop of young and vibrant rugby  football players.

Mallett, who was raised in Zimbabwe before moving to South Africa, has coached professional rugby at the highest levels of the game for over two decades in South Africa, France and Italy.

According to him, about twenty five secondary schools rugby coaches would tomorrow converge at the C.M.S Grammar School for a rughby clinic which would last for a couple of days where the coaches are expected to acquire latest coaching techniques to aid the growth of the sport in Nigeria.

Akintola, explained that Kenya was one of the strongest rugby playing nations in Africa because it has a very solid rugby developmental programme, hence the reason the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation wants to emulate their counterparts from Kenya so as to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

He stressed that the NRFF was working hard to put the right structure in place since the federation is blessed with good rugby football players who could qualify for Nigeria for the next Olympic Games in Brazil, adding that the Federation had signed a contractual agreement with Jaguar Energy Drink to sponsor regular 7s rugby competitions.

Mallett, said he would be impacting safety measures on the schools coaches in a manner that it would encourage the pupils to play the game of rugby in a way to avoid injury because most parents and the schools pupils are concerned about "safety aspect" of the game.

He believed that Nigeria could become world beaters given the right encouragement, development and training because Nigerians are big, powerful and fast which are all the natural ingredients needed for success in the game of rugby..

Mallet, who remembered watching Victor Ubogu when he played prop for England and was always impressed with the power of his scrumming in the front row,said the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation needed to  emulate Kenya Rugby Football Federation that had established a solid grassroot rugby programmes in 7s rugby.

He explained that the NRFF needed rugby football players who have size, speed and strength and also create a platform to expose the rugby players to series of tested rugby matches against better oppositions in a bid to build a virile rugby squad.