… Men to open against Curacao, women to battle St Lucia

THE ‘Green Machine’, the Caribbean’s most decorated side, will open their Men’s Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens Championship campaign against Curacao on September 22 at the Barbados Polo Club in Saint James, Barbados.

The two-day tournament will see the winners being eligible for the 2019 Hong Kong Sevens qualifier tournament and two teams advancing to the 2019 Pan American Games. RAN teams will also be looking ahead to the 2020 Olympic Games. The 2019 RAN Sevens will serve as the regional qualifier with seeding based on 2018 results.

The format for this year’s tournament includes pool play for both the men’s and women’s divisions. With 14 teams, the men’s teams are seeded into four pools.

The top two from each men’s pool will go through to an eight-team knockout and the bottom six will go through to a tournament with two pools of three.

In the women’s division, the number of participating teams has jumped from seven in 2017 to ten this year. The teams will compete in two pools before being seeded in the Cup, Plate and Trophy playoff divisions.

The number of men’s teams competing has also increased, from ten in 2017 to 14 this year.  Last year’s men’s final in Mexico City saw Guyana narrowly lose to Jamaica, which denied them a ticket to this year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens.

Guyana will surely have something to prove as will Mexico, Jamaica, and Trinidad & Tobago – the second through fourth places finishers respectively, in the recent Central American and Caribbean Games in Barranquilla, Colombia.

The Green Machine, as they are more popularly known, are the RAN Sevens most decorated team, having won the tournament more times than any other country.

Guyana, in the men’s division will be placed in Pool B alongside hosts Barbados, as well as Curacao. The women, who have won the Caribbean title five times, are in Pool A in their championship, with Mexico, Dominican Republic, Barbados and St Lucia.