The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) on Wednesday named what they are calling a strong 12-man team for next month’s Hong Kong Sevens Rugby Tournament; one of the Premier events on the International Ruby Board’s (IRB) calendar.

This is Guyana’s second outing at the event (first in 2012), as Head Coach Shane Grant-Stewart told the media that his team is 85% ready for the April 7 – 9 IRB spectacle.

Ryan Gonsalves was named Captain of the team, and will be joined by Claudius Butts, Richard Staglon, Ronald Mayers, Avery Corbin, Patrick King, Vallon Adams, Blaise Bailey, Rupert Giles, Rickford Cummings, Peabo Hamilton and Rondell McArthur.

Robby Roberts will serve as the team’s manager and Barrington Brown their physical trainer.

Guyana was placed in Pool G, alongside Spain, Uruguay and Papua New Guinea. The ‘Green Machine’ as they are more popularly known, will open their account on April 7 against Spain and would wrap up day one of the tournament facing the team from Southwest of the Pacific Ocean (Papua New Guinea).

The men from the Land of Many Waters will play their South American neighbours Uruguay on April 8 in their final Group stage game. The team will depart next week for New York, where they will play several warm up matches to fine-tune preparation before heading to the East Asian city.

“We’re pretty confident heading into this tournament” Grant-Stewart told a gathering of the media yesterday, as he also pointed out that while he’s yet to get the full complement of players, “the five-day camp in New York will give us the much needed time to gel as a team, and work on our strategy for the up-coming games.”

The Green Machine’s head coach is of the opinion that his team, collectively, is on-par with several of the world’s top rugby-playing nations, but more exposure at the top level is much needed.

Meanwhile, for Gonsalves, it will be a return to a familiar territory, with the team’s captain highlighting “this is no strange place for me, and for some of the guys on the team. We all know what it takes to excel in Hong Kong. It’s no easy place because those teams are more regularly invited to the Seven’s circuit when we (Guyana) have to wait an entire year to play and we have to actually qualify.”

“It’s going to be tough, so we’re going to see how much practice games we could get with teams out of our group and we’ll try to get up with the speed of the game because that’s one factor that works against us. Our chances are good and despite our showing the last time, we’re going out there to show that we belong at the top level and we’re not an underdog team” Gonsalves added.