… says National U19s Manager

By Sean Devers
A VERY inexperienced Guyana U-19 Rugby team headed to Jamaica to compete in the Rugby America’s North (Ran) U-19 competition which was held at UWI’s Mona Campus ground. Team Guyana, who returned home yesterday, lost every match they played without getting a point.

Elisha Crawford was the only surviving member of the Guyana team which participated in a Ran tournament as a 16-year old in 2019, just before Covid-19 Pandemic halted all sports.
The team, which was led by Dakari Martindale, is the first team to play in this tournament since Covid and the players quickly realised how huge the gap in youth rugby was between Guyana and other Caribbean countries.

Guyana were grouped with host Jamaica and Bermuda while Trinidad & Tobago, the Cayman Islands and the USA South were in the other group
Guyana were mauled by Bermuda 49-0, Jamaica 39-0, Trinidad & Tobago 37-0, Jamaica 33-0 and Cayman Islands 42-0 to emphasise how far behind Guyana is in most sports at international level and, as in this case, Caribbean level in terms of facilities, coaching, exposure and mental toughness.

“Our first game was a real eye opener for the youngsters,” said the team’s Manager, former National Rugby player, Sherlock ‘Soloman’ Sam, who added that RANs did a great job in hosting this tournament and keeping U-19s and women rugby 15s alive.

But for a team with most of its players only getting interested in rugby this year and which began preparations just four months ago, it was not all gloom and doom for the manager.
“Our U-19 team was exposed to their first international tournament and the boys would have gained lots of experience from their trip to Jamaica.”

“As the tournament went on the confidence and performance increased but it was still not up to what was required at that level. But once you see improvement, that all you can ask for.
“We now need to maintain and build… organise more playing of games at second division level for a while” said Soloman as he is popularly known.

“More clubs have to be involved at the local level while a schools programme is needed and we have to extend the sport into communities,” lamented Soloman, who was involved when Guyana dominated Rugby 7s for several consecutive years.

The Manager said the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU)needs a facility to call home and must find ways of spreading the sport and attracting females to the game.

“Getting the sport in schools is very important since it develops an interest in rugby at a young age…we could start with a non-contact game called ‘tag’ which is alot of fun and then take from there,” Soloman concluded.