THE North American and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Sevens champions yesterday winged out for the continent of Asia where they will compete in the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens World Series from March 27 to 29. “Hong Kong Sevens is no easy tournament; we all have to stay grounded because even though we didn’t get the exposure that we would have liked leading into the tournament we have to go there and do our best,” said team captain Ryan Gonsalves.

The 12-man team under the guidance of head coach Theodore Henry and technical director Angus Thomson will stop over in New York before winging out to the tournament where they will compete for the second time.
“These teams are top level teams we’ll be playing against; some of the highest playing nations week-in-week-out, but we’re going to try our best to see if we can knockoff one or two of them because we have nothing to lose. We are the underdogs heading to that tournament and we’re very confident that we can win two or three games and take it from there,” Gonsalves noted.
Guyana is grouped with Zimbabwe, Tonga and Spain in Pool ‘G’ of the tournament that features all the top rugby-playing nations.
Gonsalves told Chronicle Sport that “in a high-level tournament like in Hong Kong it’s a faster game than the way we’re accustomed to here in the Caribbean and we’re hoping to get one or two practice matches before the tournament starts to adjust ourselves but we just have to adapt as the time goes by and play the best we can.”.
The Guyanese captain believes that his side, called the ‘Green Machine’, will not be one of the teams there just to participate, but to actually “represent Guyana and the entire Caribbean, we don’t want to be just another small team that no one really cares about”.
Guyana will play Zimbabwe and Spain on March 27, followed by Tonga on March 28 with the high hopes of advancing further in the series.

(By Rawle Toney)