“It’s a hell of a moment for Nigerian rugby league”.
That was Nigeria coach Bolu Fagborun’s reaction after watching his side shut out Ireland to secure a place in the final of the IRL Women’s World Series and a shot at next year’s World Cup in Australia and Papua New Guinea.
After beating Ireland 10-0, the Green Falcons will play Fiji, who beat Canada 48-0 in the other semi-final, on Sunday with the winner claiming the eighth and final women’s RLWC2026 berth.
“We will rest up, review the game, review the Fiji-Canada game and just prepare for a final,” Fagborun said.
“The reality is that we are 80 minutes away from a World Cup and we are going to do everything we can to put ourselves on the front foot for that.
“There are plenty of things to work on but we are super excited to be in the final and the bounce of a ball could put us through to the World Cup so we are going to start preparing for that.”
The Green Falcons led 4-0 at halftime after prop Fedelia Omoghan crashed over in the 14th minute and secondrower Rachel Iliya sealed the historic win when she picked up a loose ball and ran 80m to score 11 minutes before fulltime.
Iliya, a 23-year-old personal trainer, also produced a trysaving tackle to confirm her standing as one of the team’s rising stars after switching to the sport from flag football last year.
Fagborun praised his side’s defensive resolve, particularly after being forced to play a player down while star five-eighth Shondell Akhabue, who plays for Wentworthville Magpies, was in the sinbin.
“We set our goal to defend really well and one of the things that we spoke about was that if we don’t let any tries in, we will win the game. That came true. The girls were absolutely brilliant, their defensive effort was absolutely phenomal,” Fagborun said.
“We didn’t half do it hard, but these women have got a hell of a lot of execution today and the things that we worked on they just came through. Just being tough and wanting to win a game, and doing everything you can.
“It’s a hell of a moment for Nigerian rugby league, and obviously for Middle East Africa as well.”
Ireland’s best scoring opportunity came just before halftime when fullback Lily Rogan spun out of a tackle to cross the tryline but the Wests Tigers star was held up in-goal.
Irish coach Matt Kennerson admitted the pressure of a sudden death World Cup qualifier may have got to his players.
“You can’t win a game of footy when you complete less than 30 per cent of your sets in the first half,” he said.
“We weren’t the best team today, they were the better team. We dropped a ball over the line, we didn’t capitalise, things didn’t go our way and we didn’t handle it well. That’s rugby league.”
