Top coaches laud West Indies performance at World Sevens

Apr 08, 2009 Sports

– Players call for more international exposure

Rawle Welch

“It is fair to say that the performance of the West Indies team at the IRB World Sevens Series in Hong Kong recently did establish the fact that we can produce a team to compete with any other on the world stage,” President of the West Indies Rugby Union Christopher ‘Kit’ Nascimento told the media yesterday, at Olympic House.

Members of the rugby fraternity (From left) GRFU President Noel Adonis, WI Captain Claudius Butts, WIRU President and Albert La Rose at yesterday’s press briefing at Olympic House.

Nascimento along with local Union President Noel Adonis, WI Captain Claudius Butts and scrum half Albert La Rose, all of whom attended the Meeting, were unanimous in their pronouncements that the team, despite failing to achieve a win, played superb rugby in all of their matches.

The WIRU Boss said that the 3-day tournament is one of the most prestigious events on the rugby calendar which is viewed by millions across the globe and played before a sell-out stadium of 40,000 spectators.

The West Indies opened up against #6 ranked in the tournament Kenya in a Pool that included the USA and Scotland, two of the twelve core teams that participated in the competition and were beaten 17-10 after enjoying a 5-0 lead at the half.

According to Nascimento, it was an inspiring performance, adding that if you relate the result to football it was like losing 2-3.

The team’s performance made it an instant favourite among the fans throughout the tournament.

In their next encounter, they fell to the USA by a 17-7 margin in what Nascimento described as another keenly contested game.

In their third match, the West Indians came within two points of upsetting Scotland, one of the tournament’s top teams, before succumbing 19-17 after failing to convert tries.

The WIRU President informed that it was testimony to the team’s evolution since previous tournaments given the fact that Scotland is where Sevens Rugby originated.

At the conclusion of the Pool games, the West Indies were placed fourth, ensuring that they advanced to the Bowl quarter-final where they met Uruguay.

In that game, they went down 21-12 with Butts and Vincentian Hollis Green scoring tries, while Jamaican Luther Burrell converted once.

Butts in outlining the team’s performance said that the improvement was largely due to the fact that they were able to assemble earlier and hold very productive camps and play warm-up games against countries such as Canada, South Africa and Chinese Taipei.

“When we started 7 weeks ago, it was a real success, the camps in Barbados and Canada and I think that that was the main reason for our steady improvement, the actual performance I’m very proud of, we stuck together as a team, became the crowd favourites and I also think that the inclusion of the overseas-based players helped to boost the quality of the side,” Butts conceded.

La Rose preferred to give details about his personal performance, stating that even though he is not attempting to offer self praise, he felt that he had a good tournament, but would have liked to do more offensively.

“I think if you look you will see that the team’s progression since entering the tournament is moving steadily upward, you can see the positive development in the tries column, from the scores you will notice that many times we were in positions to score upsets against teams that are far more established than us,” La Rose mentioned.

The little scrum half whose position is widely regarded as the ‘engine room’ said it just shows that with a little more support from sponsors what they team can achieve.

He added that regular exposure at the international level is what made the difference between them and the other nations.

Adonis responding on behalf of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) said that the Body was extremely pleased with the team’s performance, adding that it did exactly what they all knew they were capable of doing.

“They showed that they can compete with the best in the world and over the past two tournaments, the team had begun to do some of the things that we knew they could do and losing to countries such as Scotland and Kenya was testimony the team’s admirable improvement.”

He further stated that it was the belief of the regional administration that come next tournament given the proper opportunities, the team could begin to win matches.

Meanwhile, a number of the top coaches who viewed the West Indies matches were high in praise of the team’s performance.

These were some of the comments: New Zealand Coach Gordon Tjetiens “West Indies had a very good showing….if you’re on the circuit, you would be right there,” competing with the best.

South African Coach Paul Treu “West Indies is a lot more intense in the contact situations.”

Canadian Coach Shane Thompson “You guys played very well and definitely turned a few heads, congrats for that.”

Former British Columbia Coach Dough Branter “You guys were right there, a couple of bounces and you could have been through. Disappointing, I am sure, but monumental progress.”

Meanwhile, Head Coach Joe Whipple in his summary observed that the West Indies played core teams in 3 of their 4 matches. He noted that the results in all of the games were close enough for them to have the opportunity to win anyone of them.

In comparing the team’s performance in Hong Kong with San Diego, Whipple noted that the defence had vastly improved with a tackle rate of 75% up from 35%, while they averaged 2 tries per game.