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National ruggers should be the unanimous choice for Sports Team of the Year
The national rugby team takes a break from a training session in Mexico late last year.
As Kaieteur Sport continues to highlight top performers in the 2014 sports landscape, the firm choice for Sports team of the year is the national rugby team.
This bunch of incredible athletes despite the challenges they faced, achieved incredible results in capturing both the NACRA 15’s and 7’s titles to be crowned the best in the Region, while also bringing to an end a 43 year-old drought as undisputed kings of the Caribbean.
Capturing the double in the same year clearly underlined the long known fact that the sport has come a long way in the past decade with Guyana winning the NACRA 7’s title on six consecutive occasions, before claiming its seventh in Mexico last December.
The year started with the ‘Green Machine’ without a regional title, relinquishing their 15’s title to nemesis Trinidad and Tobago in 2013, while being absent from the NACRA 7’s tournament in 2013 so there was every motivation as the rightful regional powerhouses to get back into dominant mode in 2014.
They begun the year ranked at 62nd out of 155 Test playing nations and by the end of the year had moved to #49 in the world after dominating the Region in both formats.
It started out with the team showing admirable resilience in overcoming a first half deficit against USA South in Atlanta to win a second half battle and the crown and then applying the same toughness in once again clawing their way back from an opening period arrears to rebound and beat the Mexicans at home to capture their second regional title.
The tenacity, always a notable trademark of the team, was evident on both occasions as they had to erase deficits each time playing in their opponents’ backyard, a testimony to the resolve of the players.
Their performances have allowed them the opportunity to get back on the international stage as they qualified for the Hong Kong Sevens a tournament that is highly regarded as one of the most competitive on the IRB Sevens calendar, while they also have a chance to showcase their skills at the Pan Am Games slated for Toronto, Canada later this year.
There should be no challengers to what this team has done and when the distinguished panel sits down to deliberate on the various choices, the unanimous verdict should be the national ruggers.
Many of our teams and athletes did perform outstandingly last year and need mention, but none of them came close to rivaling the feat of the national men’s rugby team.
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