Rugby league in Ghana

In 2011, The Rugby League European Federation (RLEF) selected Ghana as the pilot West African project, due to the RLEF’s partnership with UK Sport International (the British government agency charged with international sports development, which in 2011-13 was implementing international leadership programmes in Ghana, through its partner institution University of Ghana) and acquisition of a sponsor involved in professional Rugby League in England.

In March 2012, the RLEF embarked on a fact-finding trip to Ghana. One of the objectives was to hire a member of staff to manage the project with Sylvester Wellington being engaged as a consultant and Development Manager in June 2012. In August of 2012, Sylvester Wellington was flown to England to receive coach and match official (MO) education and to generally be exposed to as much Rugby League as possible.

November 2012 saw the RLEF, in tandem with the Rugby Football League (RFL) deploy a three-man technical RFL employee delegation team of Martin Crick (Coach Educator) Andy Gilvary (Development Officer) and Danny McNeice (Match Officials) to Accra to deliver coach and MO training to locals as part of the wider development strategy to begin a club and schools’ competition. Over 50 attendees participated in the week-long event. A number of volunteers from Nigeria also attended the course as observers.

In 2013 Rugby League was then introduced to circa 20 schools, with the RLEF providing 200 balls and kit to the aid in resourcing the program and assist Ghana Rugby League to embed themselves in the local community. February 2013 saw the first organised Rugby League matches played in Ghana (in UG as part of a UKSI seminar) with an agreement to send the GB Student Pioneers team to Ghana in the summer of 2014 to further promote the sport and strengthen ties with this new Rugby League nation.

On the 6th July at the El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra, a Ghana ‘All Stars’ team played against the Great Britain Student Pioneers, the pioneers victorious by 48-10.

The National Governing Body, Ghana Rugby League, was inaugurated on 6 April 2014 in Accra and became an Observer of the RLEF on August 7 2014. Ghana Rugby League became Rugby League Federation Ghana on 17 December 2015. In March 2016 the First University of Ghana Rugby League Inter-Hall Games were presented between Legon Hall, Liman Hall, Akuafo Hall, Mensah Sabah and the International Students Hostel.

Since inception, and the forming of the RLFG, Rugby League has quickly accelerated in the capital of Accra, cementing the community game from 2016 with the introduction of an annual Rugby League 9’s Series, 13 a-side Club Championship, Higher Education Inter-Hall competition and more recently engaging women and girls.

2018 saw the appointment of Sam Leach as RLFG General Manager with the main purpose of creating a robust organisational structure and administering senior and youth championships.[1]

In 2019, and within the 12 months following, the RLFG partnered the University of Ghana to organize a six team inter-hall 13’s tournament. This was followed by the formation of a four strong club competition, namely; Skolars, Bulls, Panthers and Pirates. The four proceeded to play a standard 13’s Championship with the best players representing the national team at the Middle East Africa (MEA) Championship held in Nigeria, finishing in third place.