… grouped with England, France and Argentina
PRESIDENT of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Kit Nascimento believes that Guyana’s draw for next month’s IRB/USA World Series in Las Vegas is by far their easiest chance of qualifying as compared to last year. The International Rugby Board (IRB) yesterday released the fixtures for the USA 7s, set for Las Vegas from February 12 to 13 at the Sam Boyd Stadium. Guyana are grouped with series leaders England, France and fellow South American representatives Argentina in Group A.
Speaking with Chronicle Sport yesterday, Nascimento stated that the draw is not as tough since he feels the locals can create another upset, reflecting on their 12-12 draw with the French last year which was among the talk of the tournament.
“Without a doubt, this is by far the easiest draw. I mean no draw will be easy because these are all world-ranked teams but I say this in the context that last year we had France, New Zealand and Australia to contend with which will put pressure on any team in the world being grouped with those three teams, but I think this time around the guys will be able to easily manage,” Nascimento said.
England currently lead the Series which already had two parts completed, having won the first in Dubai and finished as runners-up to New Zealand in the South Africa leg.
The IRB world rankings, as of January 17, show the other two group members France and Argentina being ranked 6th and 8th respectively while New Zealand sit at the top once again and  Nascimento said that one of the aims is to finish at least third in the group.
“Last year we were placed in the group of death and honestly it was basically impossible for us to come out on top or even third but the guys did better than they thought they would. This time around I feel they have become far more experienced having played against the same set of teams at the Commonwealth Games so I think the aim here, or one of, at least would be to finish at least third in out group,” the GRFU boss opined.
He (Nascimento) further mentioned, “If you look at the teams in out group, I would say only, probably, England have been having a good year or series. Argentina, even though they are powerful, have not been playing that much rugby while with France, I think the guys will use the draw last year we had against them as a motivation.
“Secondly if we finish at least third, it will put us in a good position to play a not-so-difficult team from the other groups, but I think the guys are ready to go do us and the Caribbean proud again”
The GRFU has named former Canadian head coach Spencer Robinson as Guyana’s new Technical Director following the resignation of its last T.D Joe Whipple.
Nascimento said that Robinson is expected to be in Guyana from February 1 and will stay until the departure of the team to Vegas on February 8.
In his absence, the side played under the watchful eyes of player/coach Theodore Henry at the National Park rugby field. When asked if the local unit will see some competitive action prior to the start of the tournament like they did last year, Nascimento said, “No, simply because we don’t have enough time and money at present to do so; in the meantime they are continuing to train every afternoon at the National Park and will have a few scrimmages against themselves.
However, Spencer (Robinson) has arranged for a few games when they arrive in Vegas against some of the competition teams, big teams I think,” added Nascimento.
The GRFU president added that he’s “not at liberty to say who the teams will be because I really don’t know at this moment, but knowing the clout he has in the sport, it would probably be against some of the top teams who are also going to play in Vegas because they will have at least three days before the start of the tournament there and I think they will really take full advantage of those warm-up games.”
Commenting on the side competing this year, Nascimento noted, “I think the guys are heading to where they want to be in terms of fitness, looking at the last beep test they had last week. So I think they will go there and give their all.
“They were one of the liked teams at last year’s competition because of how hard they played, given the teams they were put against, but this time around, like I said, they have gained tremendous experience during the year, so they will go out and give their all.”.
Guyana will play their first game against England and their second against Argentina and conclude their pool play-offs facing France.
The Pool round will be followed on Day One by the Cup Quarter-finals and, on Day Two, Sunday, February 13 by the Bowl, Shield and Plate Quarter, Semi-finals and Final and the Cup Semi-finals and Final which will be broadcast live worldwide for the first time by NBC.
Guyana, representing the Caribbean as NACRA Champions, along with Canada and Uruguay from the American hemisphere, along with Japan, join the 12 core teams of the Sevens World Series for the North American leg of the Series. USA have qualified as a core team in the Series.
The 12 core teams are England, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Argentina, Wales, Australia, South Africa, France, Kenya, Scotland and the USA. The Series has so far been played in Dubai, South Africa and New Zealand. The Series will continue in Hong Kong, Australia, England and conclude in Scotland.