The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) has selected a team of 21 players to represent Guyana in the upcoming North American West Indian Rugby Association’s (NAWIRA) 2009 Under-20 Junior World Trophy Qualifier in Barbados from July 5-13.
Eighteen-year-old Lancelot Adonis, who attends Christ Church Secondary School, will lead the team and will have school-mate 19-year-old Gordon Andrews as his deputy.
There are four Tutorial High School students, three from Christ Church Secondary, two from St. John’s College and Dolphin Secondary School respectively along with a player each from seven other secondary schools as well as the Guyana Technical Institute (GTI), the University of Guyana (UG) and Rupert Giles who attends Hartpury College in the United Kingdom.
Guyana are currently seeded number two in the Caribbean and will take on Cayman Islands in their first Pool `B’ encounter with Trinidad and Tobago being their second match.
Jamaica, who represented the region at this year’s Junior World Trophy Championship having defeated Guyana by a kick-off when the two played to a draw at the end of fulltime last year, heads Pool `A’ where they will oppose host Barbados and Mexico respectively.
The Guyanese, who are set to depart on Friday will play their final practice game against a Select Senior team at the National Park rugby ground from 16:30hrs (4:30pm) today.
According to a GRFU press release, the Junior World Trophy Rugby tournament will be contested among eight Under-20 teams, including six qualifiers from each of the regional under-19 tournaments, namely CONSUR, NAWIRA, CAR, FIRA-AER, FORU AND ARFU and the qualifying process will be completed by the end of 2008.
The 21 players are as follows: Lancelot Adonis (Captain), Gordon Andrews (Vice Captain), Clinton Mars, Jamaal Yarde, Rondell Mc Arthur, Terry Adams, Allain Crawford, Matthew Talbot, Colin Billingy, Daniel Anderson, Gavin Thompson, Trevon Inglis, Javier Butcher, Kizan Brumell, Rupert Giles, Lloyden Layne, Mikhail Hughes, Quincy Jones, Richard Coates, Richard Pires, Ryan Duyoy.
The team will be managed by GRFU’s senior vice president Robin Roberts while Laurence Adonis and Alton Agard will be coaching the squad.