Guyana men and women crowned Caribbean Sevens champions

Oct 28, 2008 Sports

– fails to make it to World Cup finals in Dubai

Sabola Gray

Tricia Munroe

Guyana men and women were crowned Caribbean Sevens Rugby Champions at the Winton Park Rugby ground in Nassau, Bahamas.

This is the third year in a row that the men have won this honour for themselves and for all Guyana, but this year the joy of being in the winners row had to be shared with their female counterparts who were determined not to be upstaged on this occasion.

The tournament saw keen and exciting rugby over two days of competition and attracted the attention of a large number of spectators, including a substantial number of Guyanese, resident in the Bahamas, who turned out at the ground to give vociferous and flag waving support to the Guyana teams which gave them every opportunity to do so.

Overall NAWIRA tournament champions were Canada and the USA in the women’s and men’s division respectively, and they also shared the runner up positions in the two categories, as a consequence of which, they will be the two teams representing the region at the IRB’s Sevens Rugby World Cup Championships to be held in Dubai in March 2009.

The teams from Canada and the USA were able to deter the challenges from the Caribbean teams and were indeed deserving of their chance to play in the World Cup.

Dane Parks

The Caribbean teams were therefore left to vie for honours in the region and Guyana prevailed against all others.

After mixed fortunes on Day 1, the Guyana Women’s team had to beat Jamaica in the first game of Day 2 if they were to remain in contention in the Cup pool.

They did so by 12 points to 0, with tries coming from Sabola Gray and Tricia Munroe, and one conversion by the latter.

This win moved the team into the semi-finals where they came up against the USA team and lost by 59 points to 0.

By this time, however, the team had its eyes set on the Plate and Caribbean Championships final against Trinidad and Tobago whom they narrowly lost to in the preliminary round on Day 1.

This time, however, the Guyana team was not to be denied and came back to win comfortably by 15 – 5, through tries scored by Tricia Munroe, Sabola Gray and Carrin Carter. The men started Day 2 in Cup Pool 2 along with the USA and Trinidad.

In the first match against Trinidad, Guyana won narrowly by 5 points to 0, courtesy of a try by Satesh Samaroo.

Trinidad and Guyana lost to the USA by 33 points to 10 and 59 points to 7 respectively. By virtue of the win against Trinidad, Guyana qualified to meet Canada in the semi-finals of the tournament. Canada won by 42 points to 0. Meanwhile in the other semi-final Bermuda lost to the USA by 65 points to 0.

Playing for 3rd and 4th, in what was also a final for the Caribbean Championships Guyana defeated Bermuda by 42 points to 0.

There were three tries scored by Dane Parks, one each from Albert LaRose, Peabo Hamilton and Ryan George, along with conversions from Theodore Henry (3), Claudius Butts and Ryan George (2). The tournament ended with USA men outpacing Canada by 21 points to 14.

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