Nigeria’s national rugby team, the Black Stallions, have been handed a tough draw ahead of the upcoming 2016 Africa Cup Sevens after been drawn in Group B alongside Zimbabwe, Uganda and Zambia.
The Africa Cup Sevens serves as the continent’s Olympic Games qualifying tournament and will take place over two days in South Africa from November 14 to 15.
South Africa has already qualified for the Olympics by finishing in second place in the 2014/15 Sevens World Series.
The top team at the end of the tournament will qualify directly to the Olympics, while the second, third, and fourth placed teams will progress to the Olympic Qualification Tournament where they will come up against other continental qualifiers to decide who fills the remaining qualification spots for the Rio Olympics.
Reacting after the draws, coach of the Black Stallions, Fabian Juries, said: “The draw here offers some really exciting match-ups right from the group stage and there are lots of potential for upsets as well, which means no team can take anything for granted.”
Zimbabwe has been tipped by bookmakers to top Group B, but Juries, a former star of the South African national team, believes the Zambians won’t be pushovers even as he warned opposing teams that any attempt to underrate Nigeria at the Africa Cup Sevens may prove costly.
Group A comprises of rugby sevens powerhouse Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mauritius, while Group C consists of Tunisia, Morocco, Namibia and Bostwana.
The 2016 Summer Olympics marks the debut for rugby sevens at the Summer Olympics, though rugby union was last played at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
