Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday charged the Guyana national male and female rugby teams which are preparing for upcoming engagements to put their best foot forward.
Dr. Anthony made the remark while delivering a pep talk to the two teams at the National Park Rugby field yesterday afternoon.
“The progress of the men’s team has been very good because you have represented Guyana quite well. The men will do us proud and the women also have to give it their all to make sure they come out on top,” Dr. Anthony told the small but attentive audience of male and female players.
The Guyana male team is preparing to participate in the NAWIRA RWC 2011 qualifiers which will be held in the Cayman Islands from April 19-27 while Guyana will be hosting the NAWIRA Caribbean Women’s Championships from May 3-10.
Dr. Anthony stated that he believed that more persons needed to get involved in sports because there were still a lot of inactive people in Guyana.
He noted that the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) has a very good development programme which he pointed out has resulted in success for several representative national rugby teams including the national U-19 team.
President of the West Indian Rugby Union, Christopher ‘Kit’ Nascimento said the two teams had the ability to be successful in the upcoming tournaments and commended the women players on their growth in the rugby arena.
“Guyana have played a major part in West Indies and North American rugby. They have consistently demonstrated that they are one of the teams to beat. The men have been the West Indian champions for two years and running and have contributed five players to the West Indian rugby team,” Nascimento noted.
Nascimento also pointed out that the Under-19 male team had won the Caribbean championships four years in a row before it was shifted to an under- 20 Championship.
The winner of this year’s championship which is to be played in Barbados in July, will progress directly to the junior World Cup, Nascimento said.
“To all of this, well, Minster you know we need funding, we need support, we need the government support as well as your presence here. We also need corporate support as these are great young men and women devoting themselves to a wonderful sport and working really hard at it and this is the evidence of it,” Nascimento said.
He lauded Ansa McAl and Demerara Life who have decided to jointly sponsor next month’s Women’s tournament.
