JOHANNESBURG – The Nigeria Rugby Football Federation (NRFF) has sought the expertise of a South African doctor of sports science, Wilbur Kraak, to help the West African nation with its mental approach to the game with the oval ball.
Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, Kraak will be holding the coaching sessions online for Nigerian national rugby team players and coaching staff.
Kraak has published several books on the various elements within Rugby Union and has presented at several summits in the various topics within rugby, from coaching to performances to laws and its effects.
The sessions will be held to improve on the mental approach of the players.
Kraak said in addition to the sessions he will be running, Nigeria needs to improve its school rugby and university levels of the game. However, NRFF maintains improving these areas will remain a massive challenge due to a lack of funding.
The funding issue will only be exacerbated by Covid-19. Nigeria to date, have recorded 28 711 Covid-19 infections, with 11 665 recoveries and 645 deaths.
Dr Wilbur Kraak has published several books on the various elements within Rugby Union. Photo: twitter.com/sperfsummit
The steady rise of cases in the country is cause for concern. On April 17 Nigeria had 493 infections, in one week that number had more than doubled to 1095. Since then, the numbers have continued to skyrocket, with the average number of new daily infections well above 500 each day since June 9.
On June 6, there were 8065 active cases and a month later there are now 16 401 in the country. It therefore remains to be seen which will be worse - the health or economic effects of the virus in Nigeria. And how that relates to growing the game of rugby will surely leave the administrators of the game in a difficult position.