Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens Olympic Qualifiers:

Nigeria’s Black Stallions coach, Fabian Juries has blamed his side's failure to progress beyond the last eight at the Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens Olympic Qualifiers on injury.

Nigeria lost five of their key players to injuries and knocks, and the coach said that the injury list affected his team's overall performance which was far better than that of their previous outings.

Coach Juries address the media after the Sunday's game at the Barnard Stadium in Kempton Park, Johannesburg, explained that his captain; "Azeez Ladipo injured his shoulder in the early minutes of the first game and we had to manage him through some matches. 
Nuhu Samaila, Ike Onwukanjo, Onyinye Onwukanjo, Hafis Ayinla; were also injured leaving us with just one substitute in the last two games."

The coach also revealed that the team has greatly improved haven't set a quarter final target: “We set a quarter final target and the boys met it but going forward, we need to work on strength and conditioning of the team and ensure they play together in more tournaments."

The Black Stallion's coach explained that Kenya and Zimbabwe invest a lot in their team’s strength and conditioning and it was evident in their performance, adding that Zimbabwe edged Nigeria out due to their Strength and Conditioning which requires a bigger budget to achieve.

The Rugby Africa Men’s Sevens Olympic Qualifier ended in a thrilling final between Kenya and Zimbabwe with Kenya beating their counterpart at the sound of the hooter.

Kenya Sevens will now represent the African continent at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games along with the Springbok Sevens, who qualified for the showpiece by finishing second on the log table at the conclusion of the 2014/2015 HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, also, Zimbabwe, Morocco and Tunisia will stand a chance to qualify as they automatically qualified for the repackage scheduled to hold in Monaco, France Next year.