THE Green Machine, Guyana’s National 7s rugby team, finished seventh place at this year’s Pan Am Games in Canada – a performance head coach Theodore Henry says was acceptable but could have been better. Guyana lost their first game of the eight-team tournament against the hosts and eventual gold medal winners Canada 45-0, then went down 41-0 against silver medallists Argentina and 31-5 to Brazil.
The Guyanese then lost 31-0 to both the USA who eventually finished third in the tournament and fifth-placers Chile.
Their best performance came against fellow North American and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) nation Mexico, whom they overpowered to win 26-22.
Patrick King, who had scored the lone try for Guyana/Argentina, turned back the hands of time and showcased his brilliance against Mexico – the team that he dismantled to pilot Guyana to their 2014 NACRA 7s title.
King scored three tries (15 points) and Peabo Hamilton (5 points) accounted for the other while Ryan Gonsalves made good of two conversions (4 points) and Lancelot Adonis one (2 points).
“It must be noted that we played in the tougher of the two groups and then the mighty USA in the quarter-finals. I thought we could have been a bit more competitive against Chile but I thought the team performed to about 80% of their true potential and this is largely due to the team’s inability to play top-tier teams on a consistent basis,” head coach Henry said in an interview with Chronicle Sport yesterday.
Henry said that beating Mexico was a welcoming reminder to the other NACRA teams that Guyana are still the team to beat in the Caribbean and believes that “once afforded the opportunity to play in a few more high-level games outside of NACRA, the team will be better equipped to play against the ggiants of NACRA (USA and Canada).
Guyana are Caribbean’s most decorated 7s side, having won the NACRA title an unprecedented seven times. However, Guyana surrendered their trophy this year to the USA.