GUYANA’s Sevens Rugby team which stands as five-time Caribbean Champions and Central American and Caribbean (CAC) games gold medalist, returned home from the just concluded Commonwealth Games a winless bunch and this according to GRFU President Kit Nascimento, was because of off the pitch distractions.
The Guyanese Ruggers played four matches in Delhi India where the 19th staging of the games was held; lost their first game to Scotland 26-0 then playing the eventual Gold Medal winners New Zealand they tumbled to a 52-0 defeat and wrapped up their group stage with 47-0 lost to Canada.
Playing in the Bowl competition, Guyana narrowly went down 21-14 to Tonga in a game which they still feel they should have won.
Speaking at  a press conference called by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) ,where, also present were team captain Claudius Butts and player/coach Theodore Henry who along with Nascimento spoke sadly about the team’s display in India.
The trio was of the opinion that given the kind of preparation the team had for the Commonwealth Games, their performance should have been better.
“This was one of the best prepared rugby team this country has ever had” Nascimento exclaimed, adding that the team prior to the Commonwealth Games, played two consecutive tournaments and also had a one week training camp in Barbados and another in England.
While in the United Kingdom, the squad thanked the kind patronage of the Loughborough University, where they were privy to having the use of one of the country’s finest venues where Rugby is concerned and also played undefeated in three matches.
The views expressed by Butts, Henry and Nascimento were that the team arrived a bit too early for the competition, some 10 days before the start of play and as such, some players were simply carried away by the whims and fancies of the games village.
“When we looked at all the other teams, everyone arrived like three or four days before the start while we got there 10 days before. During the time spent, we trained everyday and rested just two days to the start of competition, but that’s not an excuse for our performance,” the GRFU boss pointed out.
According to Captain Butts, it was disappointing given the high level of expectancy that surrounded the team prior to their departure since it was the first time that Guyana would be represented in the discipline of Rugby at a major tournament other than the CAC games.
“I don’t know, but I think some of our players got carried away while there because it showed on the field. People who know our team could have tell that something was wrong because in our talk I said to the players being at the Commonwealth Games would be considered a once in a life time achievement and we should make the best of it, but I guess they didn’t,” said Butts.
It was not the first time the team was exposed to competition of such nature, having participated in this year’s International Rugby Board (IRB) USA Sevens World Series that was held in Las Vegas.
The always outspoken Henry clearly noted that the wrong message was sent to the Rugby world about Guyana’s ability to compete on the big stage simply because of the negligence of some players on the tour.
“What we have is a team that can compete with any of the top countries in the world, all we need to do is take the same focus we have when we play in the Caribbean tournaments because we know we’re number one and everyone is coming at us, and we would step up but I think some players just thought reaching India was the end, they forgot about playing,” said Henry.
According to Nascimento, the board will meet where they will discuss the tour to India and the future of the players on the Guyana sevens rugby team.
Meanwhile, it was noted that the players will take a few weeks off since they have been doing nothing but rugby for the past six weeks then would return to training, since they have been once again invited to the Las Vegas Sevens in February.