Ladipo Said; Nigerian rugby not yet professional

 
Azeez Ladipo is the captain of Nigeria’s national rugby football team, the Black Stallions. In this interview with Idris Adesina, he talks about how the sport can develop more in the country

Nigeria is currently campaigning in the Africa Cup 1C. As the captain of the national rugby football team, the Black Stallions, how soon do you see the country leaving that division to Cup 1B?

To be candid, Nigeria will progress to Cup 1B as soon as the nation begins to support the ‘lesser sports’ and take the whole focus off football. Seriously talking, we call ourselves a footballing nation but we are yet to go nearest to winning the FIFA World Cup. The best we have gone is the second round yet we keep spending fortunes on the same sport. The moment we start realising that we can be good at other sports as well, we will progress in all the sports. When we start putting the right structures in place for each sport to grow and develop locally, and we create a kind of league for each sport and allow the young ones to choose from an array of sports, then we will get the best of the sports. We can then talk of leaving our present state in rugby and we can then pursue the rugby World Cup.

What is your impression of Nigerian rugby?

 Actually rugby is a sport that has been picking itself up in recent years through the efforts of the Nigeria Rugby Football Federation and some other lovers of the sport. Rugby has been in Nigeria for a long time but it is only a few people who were aware of it in the past. It started gaining popularity in the late 90s and now with the efforts being made to get the local league running and spreading it to the secondary schools, the sport has a very good future if the private sector can invest more in it.

Nigeria has a blend of overseas-based players who are frequently invited to play in the competitions we go to in Cup 1C. How do you think these players can be made to stay with the team?

It is really a tough challenge for the federation to keep these overseas-based players with us in our current position. It involves a lot of funds from the NRFF to get them to come and play and still keep them with the team. Players like Christian Ogar, who is based in South Africa, is always ready to play with the team anytime he is called but for the others who are based in the UK, it could be tougher because of their schedule. When we eventually get more sponsorships for the team and the sport, getting promotion would be easier and keeping players won’t be a serious challenge as it is now.

You play for Cowrie RFC in Lagos and you recently defended your Premier League title. How does that feel?

It is good to be a champion but I am happy that for the first time in a long while we got beaten by Racing RFC. It shows that the league has really improved and there is more competition for the title now. However we are still working hard to be better than we currently are.

Nigeria was excluded from the 2015 All Africa Games and now with rugby returning to the Olympics, Nigeria is not there. How do you feel about this?

For the All Africa Games, we qualified but the sport was dropped because the hosts, Congo, do not have a Local Organising Committee for rugby. But for the Olympics, we went to South Africa for the qualifiers with home and overseas-based players but we could not qualify for the Games after we finished eighth in the quarterfinals. Zimbabwe beat us because they were prepared for the high altitude in South Africa than we were. It is really said when one realises that one would not be at the Olympics but I think we would have done better if we had more funds to prepare for the qualifiers. We can look ahead to the next Olympics and only hope things would get better by then.

How did you begin rugby?

I began rugby in 1998 in Lagos. I was playing football one day with my friends when we saw one of my elder brothers, George Ladipo, with a rugby ball, which sparked an interest in my friends. I wasn’t interested at first but after a few weeks of conviction I decided to try it out and I became hooked in the sport. It was George who took us to the University of Lagos where he introduced us to Martin Crawford. Crawford taught us the rudiments of the game and made sure we became better at it playing in different positions.

How will you compare what happened when you started with what obtains now?

One can’t compare really because back then only a few people were privileged to play rugby – mostly those who had lived outside the country or visited there at a point or the other. It wasn’t that popular but now it is everywhere and quite popular in the country. It was mainly passion for the game that kept people like me in it back then and since I started, I haven’t stopped learning about it because I have come to love the sport a lot. I also had many mentors around me who kept motivating me in the sport – they are too numerous to name. I was 17 when I travelled with the Lagos Rugby Club to Kenya for the Safari Sevens and I was taken along to watch. I even got to play when one of the players got injured and since then I’ve been playing rugby all over the world. Rugby is quite popular now and anyone can play it anywhere if he or she picks the interest in it.

Since you started playing when you were in secondary school, at what point did you become a professional rugby player?

As of today, rugby has yet to become professional. What we have is what I can describe as a semi-professional status for the sport because the players in the country only do rugby on a part-time basis. We have yet to have that structure that makes rugby fully professional in Nigeria. What we have now is a group of people who don’t want the sport to die, they are investing the little they can in it in the form of a league so that the people who have interest can have something doing while the development is ongoing. For a full professional status, the players would have to face the sport totally and be earning a living from it but we haven’t reached that level yet. With more investment, I think we can get there.

Did playing rugby affect your education at all?

Yes and no. Yes because it stopped me from going outside Lagos for schooling – when I got admission into the University of Ibadan and some other schools, I couldn’t go. I had to wait till I got admission in the Lagos State University. No, because it motivated me to succeed as the people who I have around me were either graduates or Masters degree holders.

Did your parents support your playing rugby?

At the beginning, they didn’t like it but when I started travelling as a teenager, they gave me their support but kept telling me to stay injury-free. Even till date my dad still informs me whenever he sees any news about me in the papers. He is an ardent follower.

Which has been your toughest match?

My toughest match will be the plate final between my club and Ultimate Rugby Sevens RFC from the UK at the Dubai Sevens in 2013. We won 14-12 and it was the first time I had a female referee officiating a game I was involved in. I have had many tough games but I will not forget that one.

In Africa, the Springboks of South Africa are the topmost team. How long more do you think we can catch up with them?

It will take a long time for Nigeria to catch up with them because we still can’t match up with some countries who are developing in the game. Countries like Kenya are closer to South Africa than we are. For instance, the University of Cape Town has a rugby team and their hostels each have a team which can actually defeat the national teams of some African countries. So before we can achieve such a level of development in the game, we will need more than 10 years if the right help comes along.

People see rugby is a tough and rough sport, hence they avoid it. What is the difference between rugby and football?

The difference between the two sports is very clear because it is what can be seen. Football entails a lot of flair but I think Nigerians are tailor-made for rugby than any other sport. Rugby entails stamina and builds every aspect of the body and mind. There is a position for everybody to play in rugby – the scrumhalf, the prop, the fly-half, the lock, among others. Rugby is a very tactical sport which involves 15 or seven people trying to touch down the ball in the opponents’ half. People who are fat can play rugby and do it well, whereas they may not have such a luxury in football. They can play as forwards in rugby and break play for their teams. The misconception about it is that people think it is a rough sport because they think it is about people falling themselves at every opportunity but it is really fun and interesting to play. The World Rugby, the world-ruling body, has made rules which have made it more fun and safe to play the sport today.

Rugby is similar to American football, which involves the wearing of a helmet. What is the difference between them?

The two sports are similar but the differences are much. The major difference which people should notice is that in American football, they pass the ball forward while in rugby we pass the ball backwards while moving forward. This allows you to see what is front of you and guard against serious injuries. The rules in rugby also protect us better than those in American football because there is a rule governing how you tackle people and how you defend. Their tackles in American football is rougher when compared to that of rugby hence they use the helmet and the shoulder pads. For instance, if you are to tackle a person in rugby, who must be with the ball, both of you have to go down with the tackle, which makes it safe for the two persons while in American football, it is allowed to charge down a player who is not even with the ball. Rugby players are naturally built and don’t need such apparels to protect themselves.