By Calvin Roberts
Trinidad and Tobago emulated their male counterparts with a handsome 79-0 victory over the Cayman Islands to lift the North America West Indies Rugby Association (NAWIRA) women’s 15s championship hosted by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) and sponsored by Demerara Mutual Fire and Life Insurance Company and Ansa Mc Al through its Tropical Rhythm brand of juices at the National Park yesterday.
In the feature game of the double header, host Guyana, who approached the final day with a +39 points difference over Trinidad, commenced their final preliminary round match needing to beat defending champions and number one seed Jamaica by 40 clear points. They were unable to do so, but came away with a 13-10 victory.
In the first game, Trinidad were all over their opponents and led by their diminutive captain 19-year-old Juliana Straker who scored 27 points (inclusive of three tries and seven conversions) and was elected as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of her team, utilized their speed and energetic moves to good effect over a hapless looking Cayman Islands team.
From as early as the 11th minute, the eventual champions opened the scoring account when Straker eluded her marker to score the first try on the final day of the tournament which she later converted to give her team a 7-0 lead.
A mere nine minutes elapsed before Alicia Edgar scored her only try of the game to put her team further ahead with a 12-0 lead. Unfortunately for Trinidad, but fortunately for Cayman Islands, Straker missed the conversion kick.
Straker, though, made amends when she took on the opposition defence three minutes later after receiving a gem of a pass from Sojourner Hyles–Lewis who proved to be a thorn in the flesh of the Cayman Islands team.
Straker converted the try and at the half, Trinidad led 19-0 still 20 points in arrears of the deficit they needed to wipe off.
Those points came within the first 20 minutes of the second half as the Trinidadians with their backs to the strong Atlantic Ocean breeze that was sweeping across the area started what was later deemed by many as `Operation Demolition’ .
Within the first five minutes upon resumption, Abigail Roberts (10 points) walked through the Cayman Islands defence after receiving another gem of a pass from Hyles-Lewis (who later suffered an injury to her knee) to make it 26-0.
Straker got the conversion to send her team two points further into the lead.
Two minutes later the score read 31-0 courtesy of Kwanieze John (10) and although Straker missed another one of her conversion kicks, it did not stop the ladies from the Twin Island Republic as Roberts made a spirited run after some wonderful ball handling from Hyles- Lewis who found Straker who then found Roberts in an open field for the latter to score.
This time around, Straker converted the try to carry the score to 38-0 and within one point from erasing their deficit which they duly erased when the ensuing kick was caught by Hyles Lewis inside her own half. It was clear to all and sundry gathered that the Cayman Islands defence was unable to contain her and had it not been for her injured knee, she would have single handedly carried the ball to score the try.
Instead she found Roberts who then passed the ball through traffic to Kaliesha Delpeche who made no mistake in scoring the try to make it 43-0 for Trinidad.
Even though they were being outplayed, Cayman Islands led by their team’s MVP Jess Lane continued to display a never-say-die attitude with some spirited runs.
On the one occasion they managed to run the ball into the Trinidadians half, they were met by a fierce looking Delpeche who was playing in the outside half for her team and executed her tackles to good effect.
It appeared as though this play aggravated the Trinidadians who won the ball from the scrum down ordered by referee Conrad Arjoon and in no uncertain manner, through the efforts of Hyles-Lewis carried it over into their opponents half and gained a line out in the process.
The ensuing throw in was won by the Trinidad ladies and once again Straker scored and converted her try to carry her team to a comfortable 50-0 lead. At this stage, the Cayman Islands ladies who were making their debut in this tournament showed signs of surrendering and were waiting on the final whistle from Arjoon.
Instead they had to put up with some exhibition plays by the Trinidad team with full back Merlin Blackford carrying the ball forward into her opponents half and after faking a kick which caught the Cayman Islands by surprise, she easily scored a try in the 30th minute of the second half.
It was all over bar the shouting for Cayman Islands when Edgar scored a try to make it 79-0 for her team.
From the opening whistle in the feature game, it was clear to all and sundry that Jamaica would not permit the Guyanese to win by 40 points clear.
The ladies from the Land of Many Waters led by Latoya Hamilton and Maurees Skeete attacked their opponents from the opening whistle and scored their first points in the 16th minute when Andrea Lashley, who was also declared MVP on the Guyana team, converted a penalty kick from just about 18 metres out to put her team up 3-0.
It was from the same distance Lashley who played a more purposeful game this time around missed a vital kick in the dying stages of the match against Trinidad on Wednesday.
Had she made same, Guyana would have been the ones rejoicing yesterday evening in the National Park. Although they were down, Jamaica continued their relentless attack on the Guyanese and got the equalizer when Annakay Morrison scored a penalty kick for her team.
Honors were shared between both teams leading up to lemon time and once again Guyana were unable to locate either one of their wingers who featured more on the defensive end than the offensive in this game. The scores were locked at 3-3 when Barbadian Rommel Parris blew his whistle signaling lemon time.
A resurgent looking Guyana side entered the fray in the second half in search of the lead and was rewarded when substitute Collette Hope converted a penalty kick after six minutes to put the home team up 6-3.
The Guyanese were then pushed on the defensive as Jamaica began to attack but the defence stood up strong amidst the relentless attacks by their opponents.
However, a penalty try was awarded and duly converted by Morrison to put Jamaica ahead 10-6 with just under 20 minutes to the final whistle. This did not deter the Guyanese who, backed by vociferous support from the spectators, never gave up.
Even though Kaydian Gayle, Jamaica’s MVP and Misty Stewart attempted some spirited runs for their team with assistance from Stacy Ann Boland and Juliet Rowe, Guyana’s defence stood up to the task and pushed their opponents deep into their own half.
They won many scrum downs inside Jamaica’s half of the field and from one such play, Theresa Torres scored a try for Guyana and then watched on jubilantly as Lashley converted the try to put their team up 13-10 with just under two minutes to go.
Having had to resist some more attacks from Jamaica, it was a welcome relief when the shrill sound of Parris’ whistle sounded to signal a win for Guyana. One that came too late.
