A strong 22-man squad is scheduled to leave Guyana today to represent the country at the North American and West Indies Rugby Association (NAWIRA) Rugby World Cup Men’s 15’s Qualifiers in the Cayman Islands.
The tournament starts tomorrow and ends April 27.
According to a press release from the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), the team, which was announced on Wednesday, includes four overseas-based players.
The team, which will engage Jamaica in their opening encounter, will be led by Claudius Butts.
The overseas-based players are Kevin Mc Kenzie, Dillon Downer, Ronald Mayers and Richard Staglon.
Butts, who was the runner-up 2007 Sportsman of the Year, also captained the West Indies Rugby squad which participated in the International Rugby Board (IRB) Rugby Seven’s World Series USA stage in San Diego, California earlier this year.
GRFU president Noel Adonis expressed confidence in the squad and said he expected them to perform exceptionally well at this level.
“I am very confident in the team mainly because we have a squad of individually-talented players and I am sure that after training together for so long that they would have developed cohesiveness to play as a unit,” Adonis said.
Team coach, Sherlock Solomon, said that the team had been in training for close to 11 weeks and that the squad was fundamentally built on an experienced core of players.
Solomon also said that the coaching staff had also decided to incorporate the youth and speed of three of the U-20 national players, namely Dane Parks, Peabo Hamilton and Cloyd Prowell to add another dimension to the team this year.
The 22 players who have been named are Algernon Felix, Cloyd Prowell, Alwyn Etwah, Dane Parks, Christopher Singh, Delroy Gordon, Claudius Butts, Dillion Downer, Clive Montouth, Jose Felicien, Felon Thompson, Jason Tyrell, Kevin McKenzie, Leon Greaves, Richard Staglon, Peabo Hamilton, Ronald Mayers, Ryan George, Terrance Mc Almont, Theodore Henry, Walter George and Elwin Chase.
This group of the qualifier will be contested by The Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago and the winner will move to the next round of the World Cup Qualifier against the winner of the South American Regional B Qualifier.
