Rugby Africa is 30 years old – From the 6th to the 8th of April the major stakeholders of African Rugby will convene in Marrakech, Morocco for an exceptional seminar hosted by Rugby Africa, the continental governing body of the game for almost 30 years.
Bernard Lapasset (World Rugby’s President), Abdelaziz Bougja (Rugby Afrique’s President), Oregan Hoskins (South African Rugby Union’s President) as well as many other prestigious guests will for a few days discuss strategic orientations for the future of African rugby. How to empower women considering the growing enthusiasm for women’s rugby ? How to build fruitful partnerships with local and regional media to raise awareness around African rugby ? Can Rugby be a boost for education ? Rugby Africa’ s work is tangible however has it been enough to lead African Rugby towards progress and high performance ? What about the cooperation between the major African sports institutions (ACNOA – association of national olympic committees, AASC – association of African sports confederations) and the international bodies (World Rugby, International Olympic Committee).
In Marrakech these topics will be debated during numerous meetings.
But why organising this seminar now ? 2016 is actually a decisive year for Rugby Africa’s 38 unions seeing that Rugby Sevens joins the Olympic Games for the first time in Rio – where Africa will be represented by Kenya and South Africa – and that it is also the beginning of a new qualification process for the next fifteen-a-side men’s World Cup.
Morocco as an emerging and innovative country offers a perfect environment for this most strategic seminar. Well known for its hospitality the Moroccan Rugby Union will know how to make the delegates comfortable whilst ready for some hard work. Meetings will be concluded on the 9th of April by a Get Into Rugby demonstration organized by the union to emphasize once again the major role education and youth are playing in Rugby Africa’ s mission.
