President of Rugby League Federation Ghana, Juliana Storey, has shared her delight at forming the Women’s National Team for the first time in the country’s history as they gear up for the very first test against Nigeria in a friendly encounter.
Ghana’s Women’s National Rugby League Team known as “THE LEOPARDESS” is gearing up for a historic senior women’s series against Nigeria, to secure world ranking points.
As the Federation concludes its inaugural women’s 13s championship, 26 players have been selected from three clubs to form the training squad for the match against Nigeria in November.
In an exclusive interview with Citi Sports, Julian Storey, who is the President of the Federation, shed light on forming the women’s national team, adding the team’s objectives and what she expects from the game against Nigeria.
International exposure is priceless, it helps our team to look forward, past Nigeria.
When you look at the middle east in the African competition, in order to qualify or to be full members of the international rugby league federation, we have to play a certain amount of games.
And obviously, going over to Nigeria will expose us [Ghana Women’s National Team].
The Nigerians will aslo come and play with us here in Ghana, so we prepare for the women for the international games, just us we prepare the men, it just happens that, Nigeria is our first interaction and it should be an exciting, fast paced, amazing experience.
We aim to win, that’s the objective, we are going to go out there and give it our all, and as always it is a friendly rivalry, they will benefit from the international scale, so as we will, so we are planning to get ourselves over there and deliver for Ghana.
The two nations will face off in two matches at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on November 3 and 5.
A return fixture is scheduled at the University of Ghana’s Ajax Park in Legon, Accra, on December 9.
Team Manager for Ghana’s Women’s National Team, Riddick Abrokwah Alibah, believes the test against Nigeria is a major milestone for the ladies given the pedigree of the Nigerian National Team.
In a grand scheme of things, it helps the federation to be full members, we are now affiliates of the International Body, so this is a criteria that is more like a check or pass. For our Ladies, this opens up the gateway for them, it builds thier confidence.
RIDDICK ALIBAH – TEAM MANAGER, GHANA RUGBY WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM
If they are able to play this, it opens them up for the World Cup qualifiers in 2025/26, that’s the qualifiers and the tournament proper later on.
So it is a major milestone for them, so it is big.
The selected players for the WOMEN’S NATIONAL TEAM are:
