TO say that Guyana doesn’t have the best male Sevens Rugby team in the Caribbean would be like saying Michael Jordan was the worst person you knew who had played the game of basketball – a sure denial of the truth and being factually ignorant.
Guyana’s Sevens Rugby team have not only won the NACRA Caribbean championships five times, but they have also entrenched themselves in sporting history in Guyana and the world to an extent, because since Rugby was introduced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in October of 2009, Guyana won the first tournament to be played under the Olympic umbrella – The CAC Games.
It was the first time as well that Rugby was added to the calendar of events for the 2010 Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Championships and with the games played in Guyana, the local side avoided even a try to be scored against them in their march to gold.
Their win was also the first time that Guyana landed a gold medal in team competition at the CAC games.
But apart from the CAC, Guyana’s Sevens rugby team are five-time Caribbean Champions and by virtue of winning last year’s tournament, they qualified to participate in this year’s Commonwealth Games.
But winning the right to be the only team from the Caribbean to play in the Commonwealth Games Sevens Rugby tournament came with a price that Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) is battling to pay.
Sixteen teams will participate in the tournament October 11-12 and the Commonwealth Games will be responsible for the participants’ airfare and housing. The GRFU believes that pre-tournament is very important.
Guyana is grouped with New Zealand, regarded as ‘the’ best Rugby nation in the world, originators of the game Scotland, and Canada.
Loughborough University in England will afford Guyana their only real taste of competition before the Commonwealth Games, thanks to the School’s Boost programme where the team will be encamped from September 24 to 30 and will play in a tournament organised by the University on the 26th.

‘WE NEED MONEY’
A five-day intensive training camp is scheduled for Barbados in a few weeks which will have all the selected players except those playing in England, and this, the Union’s president Kit Nascimento says, calls for some serious funding which they “don’t have at the moment”.
“We do not have the funding yet but I’m going to be making another appeal to the Government to help us prepare and go forward to properly and effectively represent our country at the world level,” said Nascimento at a press conference held recently.
He added that it would be wrong to approach the private sector who had thrown millions of dollars behind the staging of last month’s CAC and NACRA Sevens Championships and the Government is the only alternative.
“We would not go to the private sector but if a company wants to lend their support, so be it, but we approaching them would be wrong at this point; but knocking on the government doors is the only option. The Minister of Sport Frank Anthony had stated that they will try to support any team leaving here so we will be seeking that assistance,” Nascimento mentioned.

TEAM PREPARATION
In the meantime while Technical Director Joe Whipple is away, local coach/player Theodore Henry will be taking the local players through their paces. He mentions that “at present we are doing some reconditioning, and then gym work and just keep our legs active before we join the rest of players in Barbados”.
The GRFU said that they are looking at including Canada-based rugger Albert La Rose who was out with a shoulder injury. He was omitted from the CAC and NACRA team.
La Rose, along with captain Claudius Butts, Henry and Kevin McKenzie, is among the few players on the field who have played at some of the highest levels of competition, being some of the fixed players on the West Indies team.
However, Nascimento said that they are currently in contact with La Rose’s Rugby Club in Canada, as he is monitored closely.
The primary objective of Guyana’s Sevens Rugby team is not only to win but also to properly represent the Caribbean.
They will be the smallest nation ever to play at the Commonwealth Games and certainly their feat to hold France, who are ranked fourth in the World by the International Rugby Board (IRB) to a 12-12 draw at the USA Sevens World Series earlier this year, will be remembered.