Rwanda close to World Rugby membership slot

Rwanda is a step closer to attaining full membership on World Rugby Body (IRB), the international Rugby governing body. This comes in spite of the national team, the Silverbacks losing 29-3 in the final of this year’s Africa Cup Division 2 final to the hosts DR Congo A team on Tuesday in Kinshasa. The other teams in the Division 2, Burundi and Congo Brazzaville failed to turn up for this year’s competition and as a result, DR Congo entered two teams, ‘Leopards A and B’. Silverbacks defeated Leopards B, 17-8 while Leopards A won 49-0 against their fellow countrymen. Attaining full membership could boost the Silverback’s dreams of advancing from the Africa Cup Division 2 next year, which is the lowest tier in the continental Cup, to Division 1C. Full membership comes with financial assistance and technical support, which are needed. The Silverbacks travelled with an 18-man squad, instead of the full 23. Speaking to Saturday Sport, the Rwanda Rugby Federation (RFF) general secretary Tharcisse Kamanda said Rwanda is closer to full filling the first condition which is to have ten clubs. “We currently have eight clubs, and we hope that by the end of the year we shall have ten clubs,” he said on Friday. According to Kamanda, a new club, Rusizi Resilience RFC, which would be the 9th in the local league, has been formed though it’s yet to be registered. RFF are also looking to create another club from an educational institution, just like the University of Rwanda Grizzlies RFC and Tumba College RFC. “You can’t have a strong federation without strong clubs, we need to start from schools and that program is already on, when Rugby develops in schools, even the clubs can get many players,” Kamanda noted. He also revealed that the federation is in talks with the City of Kigali to acquire a permanent rugby ground. World Rugby officials are set to come in September to do an evaluation to see if the federation qualifies for the full membership. This will be preceded by a meeting by the IRB in November where Alex Araire, the RFF president and other attendants will be able to solicit for the full membership. This year’s edition of the Africa Cup features 27 nations, which are distributed to several divisions according to performance. These are Division 1A, Division 1B, Division 1C and Division 2 (North, South East & South). The winners in Division 1A are the Africa Cup winners, the winners of a division are promoted while the losing teams are relegated. After defeating the DRC in the Africa Cup Division 2 South last year the Silverbacks couldn’t advance to the Division 1C due because they are not full members of the IRB.

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Rwanda close to World Rugby membership slot