President of the GRFU, Noel Adonis, at the press conference held yesterday at Olympic House. Also in photo are secretary of the GRFU and manager of Under-19 team, Curtis Jacobs, and honorary executive Christopher Nascimento (sitting). Standing are from left: WI captain Claudius Butts, assistant coach Theodore Henry and coach Lawrence Adonis.

GUYANA’S continued decline in youth rugby was one of the burning issues discussed at a press briefing held at Olympic House yesterday by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU).

Guyana, after winning titles in earlier years, dropped to the sixth position this year, after finishing fourth last year, in the NAWIRA U-19 tournament that concluded on Saturday at the South Sound Rugby Club ground in the Cayman Islands.

The exceptionally high standard of competition exhibited by the other nations, who were participating in the tournament, was not anticipated. This was the view of Manager Curtis Jacobs, Coach and Assistant Coach Lawrence Adonis and Theodore Henry respectively.

What was refreshing, however, at the briefing was that the executives of the GRFU admitted that they will be doing all that is necessary to ensure that Guyana does not remain in its current state.

The trio reported that the players from the other territories were bigger and therefore used this as a psychological advantage over the smaller Guyanese players.

The panel acknowledged that the sport of rugby is no longer played on the level to which Guyana has become accustomed.

According to Adonis the local ruggers played as well as they could have even though “they had their work cut out for them”.

Coach Adonis stated that the score lines, while they paint their own picture, did not reflect how well the players played especially since preparation for the tournament was inadequate.

Guyana lost their first game in the tournament to Trinidad & Tobago 23-5 which automatically placed them out of contention for the championship cup.

They were relegated to compete for the bowl competition. They won their second game against Bahamas 29-10 and were severely beaten by Bermuda 78-0 in their third game to finish sixth in the points standings. Jacobs stated that he has never seen Guyana in such a position before.

He referred to the refereeing in a game as “unfair”. However, he remembered that game as one of Guyana’s best in the tournament because the players showed their true mettle despite the players getting frustrated.

He explained, “The tournament was played on a very high level and since this is the first time managing the Under-19 squad, the level of rugby was exemplary”.

He informed media operatives that many of the countries have boarding schools and the players are playing rugby everyday and as a result the standard of the game being played becomes higher.

He compared, “I think that put our players at a disadvantage. A lot of our players are new to rugby and have only been playing rugby for a few months. I did not feel well with our final score against Bermuda and it literally showed the level of rugby being played in Guyana and therefore we have a lot more to do where our Under-19 programme is concerned.

We actually have to go back to our schools and develop rugby and take it to another level but it is hard to bring in players who have never played rugby before and teach them rugby, he continued.

He stated that some of the seasoned players did not perform as much as the management team expected.

Coach Adonis remembered our players looking like “boy scouts” as compared to players from the other nations who weighed over 300 pounds and were taller than six feet.