Guyana fail to deliver
THE 2009 NAWIRA U-19 tournament concluded on Saturday last with three matches on the final day of competition at the South Sound Rugby Club ground in the Cayman Islands.

In the first match Guyana failed to deliver on the promising performance of their second game against Bahamas two days earlier, and fell to an uncharacteristic defeat against Bermuda, losing by a huge margin of 78 points to nil.

Bermuda turned out to be the ‘dark horse’ of the tournament improving with every game and this was evident against Guyana as their forwards took control of the game and never relinquished it, as they emerged winners of the Bowl competition.

Consequently, Guyana placed sixth in the final standings in the tournament.

In the second match, a play-off for third and fourth between Trinidad and Jamaica, the former triumphed over the latter by 21 points to nil after a keenly contested game in which honours were even most of the time, but only one team scored.

The final between Cayman Islands and Mexico was a replay of 2008. While Mexico was the only team in the finals to score a try, to which they added a penalty for good measure and achieved a total of 8 points at the end of the game, the well drilled Cayman Islands unit exhibited their range of skills and underscored the importance of a ‘kicking’ game by scoring one drop goal and five penalties to amass a total of 18 points, thereby ensuring that they retained the NAWIRA U-19 Champions Trophy for 2009.