“WE WANT TO EDUCATE ALGERIANS IN RUGBY’S VALUES” RUGBY UNION has been rooted in southern Africa for well over a century. First in South Africa, then branching into Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana. More recently the roots have been spreading up the continent, to the Ivory Coast, in the west, who appeared at the 1995 World Cup, and to Kenya, on the east coast, now a force on the sevens circuit. But rugby’s roots have never been able to penetrate across the Sahara Desert into North Africa. Instead, football has been the dominant sport in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, the three countries having each appeared in four World Cup tournaments in the last half a century.
So what about an approach from the north? Might rugby have better luck crossing the…
