By Emmerson Campbell
The National Men’s Sevens Rugby team (The Guyana Jaguars) currently in Canada, will look to roar today as they open their defence of their NACRA Caribbean Rugby Title at the Twin Elm Rugby Park.
At the two-day tournament, the six-time champions will look to retain their NACRA Caribbean Sevens title and make it seven consecutive titles.
The Jaguars will also be hoping to claw their way to a top two finish among the countries contesting the Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifiers.
The national side will kick off their first match at 9:40 hrs (Canadian time) against Trinidad and Tobago, followed by Barbados three hours later.
They will then take on the Cayman Islands at 15:20hrs.
The local ruggers are the number one seeded team in Pool C – while Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are the othercountries in that group contesting the Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifiers.
The USA heads Pool A with Jamaica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines being the other countries while Canada heads Pool B with Mexico, Bermuda and The Bahamas as the other competitors.
During a telephone interview with Captain Ryan Gonsalves yesterday he reiterated that the confidence level of his teammates heading into today’s games is even more upbeat with the addition of Trinidad and Tobago-based starting forwards, Richard Staglon and Ronald Mayers who initially weren’t granted Canadian visas due to logistical problems.
Said Gonsalves: “Our confidence right now is pretty high, the fact that we have Staggy and Mayers in the team now that adds to our depth and experience, that was a huge boost to our depth and team as a whole because we now have our normal starting seven”.
He added: “We are still to decide our final 12 because Albert LaRose, the former national scrum off joined us up here in Canada, so I guess by tomorrow we should know the final 12, we had a session today that went pretty well as Staggy and Ronald adapted well as they usually do so it’s good that we have our depth and we are pretty confident leading into tomorrow’s games”.
The national captain also added that his team is familiar and have beaten all of the Caribbean teams before and is confident that once again the locals will make Guyana proud.
“We know our strengths and we have been working on our weaknesses and we are still a great team despite missing Kevin Mc Kenzie (Australia based) but like I said we are confident of getting the job done” Gonsalves assured.
The games will be streamed live on rugbycanada.ca.
The full squad reads: Ryan Gonsalves (captain) Dwayne Schroeder (vice captain),Elwin Chase, Avery Corbin, Peabo Hamilton, Blaise Bailey, Rupert Giles – England, Claudius Butts, Vallon Adams, Rickford Cummings, Albert LaRose, Richard Staglon and Ronald Mayers.
The reserves are Lance Adonis, Claude Alexander and Troy Bascom.
The team is scheduled to return to Guyana next Wednesday.
