TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Harvard Rugby Club arrived in Guyana on yesterday afternoon all ready and excited to play in today’s Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Hairoun Beer Sevens tournament at the National Park, which will ‘scrum off’ at 11:00 hours.

Visiting Guyana for the first time in their club’s 75-year history, Harvard will face Pepsi Hornets, Yamaha Caribs, Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Panthers and Guyana Police Force (GPF) Falcons and the winner will cash in on the tournament’s $200,000 first-place prize.

The event is organised to start the GRFU’s 2018 Rugby Season, but Claudius Butts, one of Guyana’s and the Caribbean’s top rugby players said Harvard came to the country to not only win, but do so convincingly.

Butts is the lone Guyanese on the Harvard team, and the winger told Chronicle Sport that the team has been preparing for some time, especially taking into consideration Guyana’s dominance in Regional Rugby.

According to Butts, all the Harvard players are very familiar with the Guyanese players, given the fact that Guyana would’ve won 10 Regional Sevens championship and is the Caribbean’s most decorated Sevens-playing country.

Wayne Kelly, Shaquille Dyte, Keston Earl and Nigel Barrington were named by Butts as the other key players along with himself on the Harvard side.

Meanwhile, the local clubs are also anxious to hit the National Park, with the Pepsi Hornets being boosted with the likes of Kevin McKenzie, who plays out in Australia.

The Guyana Defence Force by virtue of having the bulk of the national players, will be favourites to win today, and will turn to Dwayne Schroeder, Avery Corbin and speedster Patrick King to take them over the hill.

Panthers, the preverbal ‘bad boys’ of Guyana’s Rugby, will be one of the toughest teams to beat today, while the Police Falcons, the usual whipping boys of local Sevens Rugby, are expected to step up their game in order to compete.