The Jubilant Ghana Rugby Eagles team
The Ghana Rugby Eagles managed to lift the 2018 Rugby Africa Bronze Cup (Bronze Cup) at the Nduom Stadium in Elmina-Ghana by beating Mauritius by 23 points to 17 on 12 in a nail-biting final.
The win ensured that Ghana Eagles was promoted to the 2019 Rugby Africa Silver Cup – a step closer to the mission of the Union’s President, Herbert Mensah, to take the Ghana Eagles to the global stage of Rugby.
The President of Rugby Africa, Abdelaziz Bougja, sent a congratulatory message to Mensah, in which he said:
“On behalf of Rugby Africa, please accept my sincere thanks and congratulations for hosting the 2018 edition of the Rugby Africa Bronze Cup in Elmina, Ghana. From the feedback I received, our executive member, Mr Zahui as well as all the staff members from Rugby Africa and World Rugby, the match officials, and the visiting teams felt welcomed and enjoyed your hospitality.”
Mensah, in response to Bougja’s letter, replied “Your comments touch me. As Africans, hospitality is always a mark of our upbringing and we recognise that having been given the honour of staging this prestigious event that we make Africa Rugby proud.
“The change in venue at a late stage in our preparation radically increased our various exposures, but we strived to ensure that we kept the word we gave when making the bid.
“In winning and getting promoted to the Silver Cup, my plans were in line with all our previous discussions and our trajectory of development and success over the past three years is a vindication both in our planning and in the trust that you have placed in Ghana.
“Our programme of getting into rugby, development of women rugby and other areas of compliance, have been undertaken as directed and with the close assistance and supervision of the excellent Coralie and your team.”
The first match on Saturday was played between Lesotho and Rwanda for the 3rd Place Playoff.
Rwanda managed to beat Lesotho by 32 points to 15 and survived relegation to the Rugby Africa Regional Challenge. Unfortunately, Lesotho, who managed to get promoted to the Bronze Cup only last year, will have to return to the bottom Rugby Africa Regional Challenge.