GUYANA’S Sevens Rugby side, the Green Machine, will embark on unfamiliar journey when they participate in the Rugby Americas North 7s 2020 Olympic Qualifier from July 6 to 7 in the Cayman Islands.

Yesterday, RAN announced their schedule for the marquee event, noting that Barbados, who successfully hosted last year’s RAN 7s tournament, will host the 2019 Men’s U-19 and Women’s 10s Tournament.

In previous years Cayman Islands hosted the 2013 RAN Sevens and Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifiers at the Truman Bodden National Stadium, along with the prestigious Cayman International Sevens. Similarly, Barbados is no stranger to international competitions.

Even before the successful 2018 RAN Sevens, Barbados had welcomed regional sevens dating as far back as 2005, and is also home to the annual Rugby Barbados World Sevens Tournament, which draws over 24 teams.

According to RAN, 2019 will be an especially exciting year for Sevens Rugby, as it will also double as the Regional Qualifier for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Teams who finish in the top four of the Men’s and Women’s World Sevens Series will qualify automatically for the 2020 Olympics.

In the Men’s competition, the top-placed team will qualify for the Olympics and the 2nd- and 3rd-placed teams will go through to a final World Rugby Olympic Repechage tournament.

On the Women’s side, the top-placed team will qualify automatically for the 2020 Olympics unless both Canada and the USA have pre-qualify, in which case the top team from the regional qualifier will play in the final Repechage tournament.

The 2019 RAN Sevens is open to all unions in either Full or Associate Membership of World Rugby. It is also likely to be a qualification tournament for the 2020 Hong Kong Sevens, though this has yet to be confirmed.

With the final rounds of the World Rugby Sevens Series not concluding until June 16, the full roster of teams may not be known until three weeks before the start of the tournament.

However, the majority of Caribbean unions, as well as Mexico, are expected to field both men’s and women’s sides.
Mexico Women and Jamaica Men were both repeat winners at the RAN Sevens held at the Bellevue Polo Grounds in Barbados last year.

Meanwhile, RAN, in a release said that the Men’s U-19 will shift from a weeklong competition to four days of matches.

The new festival-style format will allow for teams to play a greater number of matches, with each match being 40 minutes long, except for the finals which will have 35-minute halves. Mexico and USA South Panthers have traded the Men’s U-19 title back and forth since 2015.

The Women’s 10s tournament remains an important developmental tool for the women’s game around the region. In its fourth year, the number of teams competing and the calibre of play continue to increase.
The Women’s 10s tournament will take place July 19-20.