The President and Board Chairman of Ghana Rugby, Herbert Mensah has delivered his 2019 Christmas message from his home in London to the Ghana Rugby Family and congratulated everyone on a wonderful year for Ghana Rugby.
“It has been a year of tremendous success and achievement for Ghana Rugby. We started the year knowing that we have won the Bronze Cup in 2018 not knowing awaits us in the year ahead,” Mensah said.
According to Mensah 2019 delivered a year where the Clubs, including the women’s sevens sides, improved a lot in their performances from the previous year in the annual Ghana Rugby Club Championship.
Mensah also said, “We saw the emergence of a U20 men’s squad who competed in the continental Barthes Cup for the first time and who now knows what it will take to do even better in 2020.”
Mensah said that the most significant achievements for 2019 included:
* The establishment of the Tri-nations competition between Ghana, Ivory Coast and Nigeria as part of the WARS (West African Rugby Series) Programme,
* Winning the Challenge Trophy in Tunisia by the Ghana Rugby Women’s Sevens Ghana Eagles in their first-ever appearance of the Rugby Africa competition,
* Duplication of the women’s feat by the Men’s Sevens Ghana Rugby Eagles in South Africa when they beat Morocco in a thrilling exhibition of sevens rugby, and
* Progressing to the Pool stage of the new Rugby Africa Cup when the Ghana Rugby Men’s 15s Eagles beat Botswana in Ghana in November.
“Even though we did not qualify for the 2020 Olympics, the winning of the Challenge Trophies by both the men’s and women’s squad was a major achievement and testament to the enormous amount of work and dedication put in by the technical bench and playing body,” Mensah said.
Mensah also thanked the key members of the technical bench including Coach Lovemore ‘Dallas’ Kuzorera supported by Collin Osborne and Stuart Aimer from afar in the UK. He also made special reference to Dr Ross Potgieter in South Africa who played a major role in ensuring that the players were not only prepared but also ensured speedy recovery after match ailments and injuries.
“One can also never leave out our Regional Rugby Associations, GARA and CentWest, who plays a fundamental role in the development of rugby in Ghana. A special word of congratulations and thanks must go to the President of CentWest, Mr James Nunoo, and his team who staged two very successful tournaments in Elmina in 2019,” Mensah said.
Mensah concluded that 2020 has already started and he urged the Ghana Rugby Family to work harder in 2020 to help Ghana Rugby to keep the momentum of the rapid rise of Ghana Rugby and to help the Union with its main task of building character in Ghana.
