The national male and female 7s rugby teams will wing out Monday for Cary, North Carolina, United States of America to compete in the 2015 NACRA Championships and Olympic Qualifiers.
Those and other details were revealed by the brass of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) during a media update yesterday at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) headquarters in Kingston.
According to president of the GRFU, Peter Green: “The union will be fielding two teams.”
Green said the union received funding from the GOA, Beharry Group of Companies and other entities but noted that in excess of $1M is still needed for the female team to participate.
He, however added that the “players are fully committed to traveling.”
The union head disclosed that once in North America, fund raisers will be established for the female outfit which has won the NACRA 7s championship on three occasions.
The two-day tournament which has 10 male teams (two groups of five) and eight female teams (two groups of four) competing for honours, kicks off on June 13.
Guyana’s male team dubbed the ‘Green Machine’ will open their account against the Bahamas at the Main Stadium at 11:22am while the female ruggers will tackle Trinidad and Tobago in their opening game at 12:06 pm at the Koka Booth Stadium.
However, prior to their national duties, the teams will tackle other outfits in three warm up games in New York.
Coach of the male unit, Theo Henry is optimistic of his team’s chances despite the absence of Australia based Kevin McKenzie. A key player to the team, McKenzie will miss the tourney since he was unable to secure leave of absence from his employers.
“One thing about this team is that we always have a solid core 15 players, we have been to numerous tournaments where we had to play without key players so one player does not define this team” Henry said. “It’s just for us to going out and delivering on the day” he added.
At the end of day one, the first two teams in each group go straight to the semifinals. The winner clinches an Olympic berth. (Emmerson Campbell)
The touring contingents are as follows:
Men’s squad: Richard Staglon (Captain), Dwayne Schroeder, Vallon Adams, Claudius Butts, Patrick King, Ronald Mayers, Avery Corbin, Lancelot Adonis, Rickford Cummings, Ryan Gonsalves and Travis Bascom.
John Lewis (Manager)
Theo Henry (Coach)
Phillip Browne (Strength and Conditioning)
Women’s squad:Carrin Carter (Captain), Collette Hope, Sabola Gray, Carren Skeete, Andrea Lashley, Tricia Munroe, Helen Jarvis, Alicia Blackman, Cleotta Dublin, Olana Reece, Alanna Fraser and Ashanti Carrington.
Petal Adams (Manager)
Elwin Chase (Coach)
Abiola Blair (Physiotherapist)
Officials
Joseph Rahaman (Equipment Manager)
Daniel Anderson (Video Production)
Peter Green (President)
