The President of Ghana Rugby Association, Herbert Mensah, has expressed his appreciation to a number of corporate organizations for their support towards the recently held Ghana Rugby, Men’s 7s triumph.
The Men’s 7s squad won the Challenge trophy in South Africa at the Olympic Quality.
Kenya emerged as the ultimate winner of the tournament.
However, Mr. Mensah believes the Ghanaian rugby team was able to put up an excellent performance in South Africa because of the immense financial and logistical supports from such organizations like Sunda, and the Twyford Group.
“We are a long way short of where we want to be. But it’s so important that I raise my hat and give thanks first to Sunda, the Sunda Twyyford Group has stepped in where we really needed to,” he said. The cost of the advance party, preparation matches, etc. would not have been possible without their kind intervention.
He also expressed gratitude to the PanAfrican Group, Societe Generale, Interplast, and Gino, among others, for their immense support toward the Men’s 7.
Touching on the positive impacts their supports were made to the development of Ghana rugby, he said, “we can’t balance our budget but it is a movement in the right direction.”
He lamented on how difficult it was to raise money in Africa for the development of other sports if one is not in football or politics.
“Sport is big business. We push as much as we can to get sponsors and people involved in the game,” Mr. Mensah said.
Adding that: “We understand this is Africa. It’s not easy to raise if you are not involved in football or you are not involved in politics. When you are involved in a minority sport, it’s always difficult….we understand that sport is not about us, it’s about the people. And the only way you are going to work, if you want to compete is to raise money.”
Rugby is the second biggest sport in the world.
Ghana’s ranking in Africa has gone up to nine and Mr. Mensah is strongly convinced that without the support of those organizations the country’s rugby teams would not have made the progress they have chalked in recent times.
Meanwhile, he has congratulated the Men’s 7s for their victory and for making Ghana proud in the international rugby arena.
In the last four years Ghana has been admitted as full members of World Rugby, hosted and won the 1D W. African Competition, hosted and won the Bronze Cup, qualified to participate in the Men’s and Women’s 7s, Won the Challenge Trophy for both Women and Men and have now extended Getting into Rugby training for more than 4,500 school children in Ghana.
He observed how each player on the team very committed to succeeding, pointing out physical training has been one of the major hallmarks of the team.
Mr. Mensah praised Coach Dallas Kuzorera, Team Manager Hakim and Captain Alex Dorpenyo.
Ghana now plays Botswana in the Nations Cup at Elmina on November 23, with the winner going on to play with World-renowned Zimbabwe.
