A sense of shared heritage and will to win for Stallions RFC
Stallions RFC, a London-based sevens club, gives British Nigerians the chance to come together and share their love of rugby on and off the pitch.
Founded in 2009 as Nigeria Exiles, the club has grown steadily and among their ranks are several who have played for the Nigerian national sevens team.
For many of the squad playing with others with similar lived experiences makes Stallions very appealing.
Richard Adeniyi Jones used to play on the sevens circuit with the Assassins invitational team and has only recently joined Stallions.
“I like playing rugby, but I was getting a bit bored, and Stallions gave me an opportunity to play with a different bunch of guys to those I was used to playing with,” he said.
Richard has since gone on to captain Nigeria Sevens in the Rugby Africa 7s tournament in Mauritius.
Having also played in the National Leagues and at Exeter University.he said: “There’s a different feeling and structure around the Stallions team. I’m playing with guys who are of Nigerian origin, a lot like me in terms of where they are from and how they grew up
“I think we have the most fun on the circuit. We’re always happy to enjoy ourselves, we like spending time together and having that communal bond.”
Enjoyment is a big reason many of the players join the club, some travelling for hours from places like Brighton and Bristol to make it to training and tournaments. They talk of their love of the club, the fact that it represents something significant.
Demi Kuteyi has played for Stallions for about two years, and something that stands out for him is that they are a predominantly black team.
“Back when I was playing at school, neither the schools we played against nor my own school really had any black players,” he explained. “Not only are we all black we’re all Nigerian too, so we have that in common. That’s one thing I’ve really bought into.”
Stallions offers something important not just from a community perspective, but also from a performance perspective.
England players like Maro Itoje, Beno Obano and Anthony Watson all have Nigerian heritage and are just some of the black rugby playing talent in the country.
However, black players often find themselves put on the wing as they are perceived as the ‘fast ones’ or having ‘bad hands’ explained Matt Ilube.
“Stallions brings one of the first experiences where, as a Nigerian guy, you feel fully comfortable in everything you’re doing because you have people who’ve been through exactly the same rugby experiences as you,” he said.
“It’s also about developing Nigerian players in the UK, making sure that the number of players with Nigerian heritage in the UK is growing. Then we might start seeing more Anthony Watsons and Maro Itojes playing for England, as well as hopefully more playing for Nigeria.”
Matt grew up surrounded by Nigerian culture thanks to his dad Tom, who lived in Nigeria and is now the Chair of the RFU, and he thinks the community he has experienced is reflected in Stallions.
Suvwe Obano, Beno’s brother, has also noticed this in his time with the Stallions. “The culture and tradition runs deep in my blood,” he explained. “My parents have drilled it into me from a young age and playing with the boys just feels like I’m connected back to the homeland.”
While the strength of the community is fundamental at Stallions, the players are also determined to be competitive and win tournaments, and they know there is more to be done.
This season they reached two finals but came up short and Demi is keen to turn those losses into wins.
He said: “It’s a results-based game. While we all want to have fun and community is super important, it’s more enjoyable when you win.”
“We want to be a team that goes to tournaments and wins them.”
With the sevens season over for now, they will have to wait until next year to test progress, but as far as teamwork and club community is concerned, there seems to be very little to improve on for Stallions.
