The Northern Region Rugby Association has held its end of year games. The event which took place last Saturday 23rd December, 2023 at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium brought together the four clubs in the region who competed among each other for the ultimate.
The clubs that participated in the games were Tamale Warriors RFC, Dakpema RFC, Rocks RFC and Northern Lions RFC. After the first round of games were played Northern Lions RFC and Rocks RFC both qualified to the finals to contest for who to get the bragging rights for the next one year.
Northern Lions RFC emerged winners of the ultimate in the finals overcoming Rocks RFC by 20:10. Dakpema RFC also emerged victorious in third and fourth place offs as they overcame Tamale Warriors RFC 10:5.
Northern Lions RFC prior to kick off
At the end of the games, Secretary and Coach of the Northern Region Rugby Association, Hudu Musah Kalaamullah in an exclusive interview with Diamond FM Sports Desk was grateful to all the participating teams for their efforts in ensuring a successful event while also expressing his admiration for the players for such a massive turnout for the games which he said he wasn’t expecting.
“Alhamdullah, first of all we want to thank the Almighty Allah for making this event a successful one. In fact, we are most grateful that we were able to come together here and have a successful event. What we do is rugby, we play rugby here in the Northern Region and today we are holding our end of year games at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium. In fact, I am so excited and very impressed about the performance of the clubs and turn out for the games.”
Coach Musah also expressed delight in the participation of the young ones who had a curtain raiser before the main games commenced. He said it was important to further groom the talents that these little ones have in store.
“And as you can see the younger ones started the games and we call them the GIR, Get Into Rugby, so it is not only the grown-ups that we have but we have younger ones as well who are like from the ages of 10 and above. They are all there to play the game and we are very impressed about it.”
Coach Musah called on the general public to support rugby to grow in the region as there are opportunities that are abound for people with talents in the sport of rugby.
“We are just encouraging the general public that our doors are always opened for any kind of support whether you are coming to play or you want to support or you want to sponsor in anything, we are there. This is a part of sports that we are doing here. It is not well known here but we have started it here and it is growing very well. So, anyone who is ready we are appealing to the general public to support or join us, you are always welcome.”
The only female player at the games who doubles as an athlete and played for Rocks RFC during the event, Miss Grace Aduntera for her part described how challenging it was to mix up with men and play such a vigorous game of rugby.
“It was not easy because of the strength involved but at least I managed. It is a contact work and so far as it is a league, they are playing for a cup. They are playing to win and if they are going to consider me, it means that they will not get what they want.”
Miss Grace was also happy that the team she played for, Rocks RFC gave it their all and placed second in the overall standings at the end of the games.
“We are somehow happy as a team even though we are not all that satisfied but we will manage with the result we have gotten.”
She also called on the people of the Northern Region to learn a helping hand to rugby to enable it grow.
“We need a lot from the people of the Northern Region because they don’t know anything about rugby but they should just come and observe and see how things are done. If they have the interest in it, I think they can promote us.”
A player of the winners, Northern Lions RFC, Zakaria Sadat was happy his side won again which according to him is something they have been doing and attributed the success to the continuous training they have been doing. He also added his voice to the call for support for the sport to grow.
“We call on all and sundry to come and see how the game of rugby is played. We train every Saturday and Sunday at the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium Annex. They should come and join us so that that we can together grow northern rugby for it to go far.”
At the end of the games, a glittering trophy and medals were given to the winning team Northern Lions RFC and medals were also presented to the second and third placed teams, that is Rocks RFC and Dakpema RFC respectively.
The Northern Region Rugby Association is under the auspices of the Ghana Rugby Football Union whose president Mr. Herbert Mensah is also the president of Rugby Africa.
