What appeared to be a flawless performance by Guyana against Barbados is being described as just another day in the park by Captain Ryan Gonsalves.Called the ‘Green Machine’, Guyana’s 15’s unit; the 2014 NACRA Champions, made an impressive start to their title defence when they dismantled Barbados 48 – 22 at the National Park Rugby Field on Saturday last.

For those on the outside looking in, it was as if Guyana was playing by themselves since the ‘Bajans’ really offered little against the Caribbean’s best side but, to the team’s captain, the ‘Green Machine’ is still trying to get rid of the rust.

Gonsalves, speaking to reporters after his team’s triumph, said that while their performance was great, the side was “rusty because we are training both the 15’s and 17’s right now but nevertheless, I think we came out and showed a good performance”.

“We stuck to our game plan which was keeping it loose because we have speed at both ends and it worked out well for us because most of our tries were from the outside. That is our style and we’ll stick to that,” Gonsalves said.

Guyana will now prepare for their next match as they head to the Twin Island Republic for a clash against the Island’s 15’s team; the same side that crushed them 20 – 0 in 2013.

There is no talk of revenge given the fact that Guyana did eventually regroup and won the NACRA 15’s championship last year when they defeated the USA (South) in the final in Atlanta but Gonsalves said that there’s much to work on since Trinidad is formidable opposition.

“We’ll be working a lot on our line out from the scrums because we give away a lot of penalties (against Barbados) because of the mistakes we made there so we’ll try to clean up on that department. Our next game is in Trinidad at home to them and that’s not going to be easy. We have our work cut out and we’re just going to stay positive and take it a game at a time”.

(By Rawle Toney)