PRESIDENT of the Guyana Rugby Football Union, Ryan Dey, said that the 12’s
league which was instrumental in building their team last year will be back
again this year as they seek to make good on the tremendous promise of
their current national squads.

Guyana will kick off their 2025 campaign with 15’s clashes against the likes of Cayman Islands and Barbados before switching to the 7’s format of the game.
‘After the two matches with Barbados and Cayman islands, we are going to be having a 12’s league running off from June to August then after August it going to be strictly 7’s leading up to November’

Dey said with the Rugby Americas North 7’s Tournament now penciled in for the last quarter of this year; they can now better plan to host their domestic tournament prior to the country’s participation.

‘I had a meeting with RAN arm of rugby, who is in charge for this part of the region and they said some time in November we will be having our 7’s tournament…….. we also have a John Lewis 7’s
that we always run off and we are now bringing back the carnival 7’s. We have about 4 teams, a team from the USA, Jamaica and two teams from Trinidad and Tobago that are coming down for that’
The inaugural 12’s league which was played last year saw Police Falcons, led by Coach Theodore Henry and winger Lionel holder, taking the title.

The country’s team which once dominated the sport for more than a decade has been on the decline for the past couple years with average to bad performance in the regional tournaments.
The GRFU head says that while they had one of their best teams last year,
the results were not reflective so they will have to work on a new strategy in the coming month to better revive their fortunes.

Dey was coy when asked about the current management team led by former
West Indies rugby skipper turn coach, Claudius Butts, who has been
working along with former professional player, his assistant, Elwin Chance
and Guyana national captain Ryan Gonslaves who was the manager.

However he insisted nothing is off the table at this point as they seek to turn the tide with regards to results and breathe new life into the 7’s programme under Butts and company. The team finished seventh in the Rugby America’s North Sevens tournament in Trinidad and Tobago in November last year with some questionable tactics on the field.