Latest update April 7th, 2025 12:08 AM
Local Rugby faces its share of testing times
By Rawle Welch
“Progress seems to be measured more often than not by material things and I think that when that happens it diminishes the quality of what you are doing and while I recognize that we are inexorably moving in that direction, I am hoping that we maintain the spirit of competition.”
Noel Adonis
That was the response of President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Noel Adonis when asked whether he felt the absence of lucrative financial incentives is affecting the growth of the sport in Guyana.
Adonis said it was one of the things that he believed is happening, but he is more concerned with the concept of developing individuals holistically and was not in full support of rewarding athletes, before they’ve learned the art of their sport both in terms of discipline and skill.
“I submit that the financial element has a huge part to play and if it is possible we will look to reward our players, but it must be administered within the proper framework and structure of the sport,” Adonis pointed out.
The GRFU Boss said that he has seen many other disciplines go in that direction and made mistakes which they’ve learned from and that is not to introduce money so early in a player’s career.
He added that sometimes at lot of attention is paid to the monetary aspects than the actual good participation of the game. “We in the GRFU always encourage our players to develop other areas of their lives such as achieving high academic standards because the reality is that not every player will go on to make it to the top,” Adonis disclosed
Where Guyana’s rugby is right now
Presently, we’ve shown over the past few years that we are the best team in the Sevens segment and clearly the objective must be to go beyond the regional level and reach the international stage.
“We seemed to have gained strength at the Sevens and we need to maintain our emphasis on that, but this does not mean that we will relinquish our focus from the 15’s.
In terms of going beyond the regional level and challenging teams such as the USA and Canada, countries that have proven to be our main stumbling block recently, I feel the gap between the countries is much closer than previous results have shown and it might be just a case of providing the necessary exposure for our teams and more particularly, to ensure that the Men’s squad get together a little earlier so that they could work on techniques and strategies longer.
Another setback is the difficulty to get players released from work so that they could have adequate preparation leading up to tournaments of international magnitude.
The impact of losing Women’s Coach Alton Agard
Certainly his relocation to the USA will be felt since he had gained a lot of experience over the years and that cannot be replaced overnight, but we must remember that when he started he too was inexperienced at some stage and we will have to find a replacement (s) for him very soon. It is up for discussion at our first meeting and we will make a release shortly after.
Integral to what we are doing is the development of more coaches and this is something we will be encouraging and facilitating in the New Year.
What is the current financial state of the GRFU
I am happy to report that we are out of the ‘Red’, meaning we have honoured all our financial obligations which included the loans we took from the Bank and NAWIRA to get our teams to tours during the year.
That was made possible because of the absence of Jamaica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines who both failed to attend the NAWIRA Sevens Tournament in the Bahamas which enabled the sport’s governing body to provide increased subventions to all those countries that were present.
The non-participation of those countries bailed us out.
Government’s support
I do believe that the level of uncertainty as to whether you will get support from the Government should be removed. Instead, at the beginning of the year, associations should know the amount of financial support they will receive and that could help us map out our respective programmes effectively.
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