Barbados Rugby team qualifies for Commonwealth Games

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC-The Barbados Men’s Rugby Sevens team has qualified for the XX Common-wealth Games set for Glasgow Scotland in July, following the withdrawal of Nigeria.

Barbados will compete in Group A with 4-time winners New Zealand, host country Scotland and Canada.

Last year the team attended the North America and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Sevens Championships with the goal of achieving at least a third place finish.

This position would have qualified them for the 2014 IRB Sevens World Series (SWS) in Hong Kong and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland.

The Bajans qualified for the SWS but missed the Commonwealth Games due to a third place playoff loss to Trinidad and Tobago.

“The boys are understandably overjoyed to have earned this opportunity, but now the real work starts,” Director of Men’s Sevens, Joe Whipple.

“The teams that we will face in our Group in Scotland are all core teams on the IRB SWS circuit, so they will have the advantage of having played a full season of high level rugby going into the Games. We need playing time as a group and to get bigger and fitter to compete at that level.”

The Barbados team has been hard at work for the past three months, training for major tournaments in Tobago, Las Vegas and Hong Kong.