National rugby football coach, Sherlock Solomon is optimistic about the chances of the five local players in West Indies 16-man squad making the final 12 that will compete in the USA World Sevens tournament next month.
Guyanese Theodore Henry, Claudius Butts, Kevin McKenzie, Richard Staglon and Albert La Rose have been called to a 16-man regional camp this weekend to prepare for the International Rugby Board (IRB) tournament.
The tournament will be held from February 10 – 11 and the final West Indies team of 12 players will be selected after the weekend camp in Trinidad. Usually the fittest players make the final team.
Coach Solomon had no reservations about the fitness of locally-based Henry, Butts and La Rose. However, he stated that he couldn’t speak authoritatively on the fitness of Trinidad-based Staglon and McKenzie. “We did two sets of beep tests to test their fitness over the weekend and from the results they have been improving every time,” Solomon said of the locally-based players.
“We just tried to keep them focused and keep them fit. The tournament in San Diego is world class so we tried to help them understand what to expect,” the national coach stated.
He indicated that West Indies newcomer Staglon is a hard worker and should get results with his attitude. “This is Staglon’s first time and he has been working very hard,” Solomon noted.
The Guyanese players will be contending for places against players from Bermuda, Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Trinidad and Barbados. Solomon said that once the final 12 players are announced it will take a West Indian team effort to make headway in the US.
“In situations where you have lesser ranked teams coming up against the tougher teams, you have to play as a team to win,” Solomon advised, adding that the West Indies team need to work on their defence.
The West Indies team will face IRB World Champions and world number one, Fiji, Scotland and Argentina in their first pool. Solomon is of the view that the experience and exposure of playing against such teams is an advantage for the regional squad.
“You have to go to tournaments like these for the exposure. If they can’t play for the cup they can at least play for the plate,” he said, noting that the least the team can do is be as competitive as possible. The local coach said that he had a discussion with West Indies coach Joe Whipple last year about a few practise matches for the team before the San Diego tour.
Solomon said that the matches were billed for Trinidad against Trinidadian clubs but he is not sure if they will still be played as part of the team’s preparations. Henry, Butts and La Rose are expected to wing out for Trinidad tomorrow.
