Three local ruggers, currently on their way to the Punta Del Este International Invitational tournament in Uruguay, are confident that they could now transform good performances to wins at the highest level.
The three players – Claudius Butts, who captains the West Indies Developmental Team for the fourth time, Albert La Rose and Kevin McKenzie, have all played consistently in the side for the past four years at the Carib/ LIAT International Invitational tournament in Trinidad and Tobago.
They have also participated at the International Rugby Board-sponsored USA Sevens tournament in San Diego and Los Angeles for the past three years. The trio will meet with other Rugby West Indies Select Team members in Miami today on their way to Montevideo, Uruguay, to participate in the XX Edition of the Punta Del Este International seven-a-side tournament which will be held on January 3 and 4 next year.
The International Invitational tournament will feature a number of the world’s top specialist Sevens teams such as teams from Italy, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile.
The West Indies Select Team will participate in the tournament in preparation for the iRB Sevens World Series tournament in Hong Kong from March 27-29 next year.
Butts plays at centre wing, a position he describes as very difficult having to defend attacks from left and right. He is also in a position to attack.”So I have to attack and defend,” he says.
Having faced some of the biggest and best teams in the world at the USA Sevens in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Butts chalks up the South American tournament, where there would be some of the best teams and players in the world, as preparation and much needed exposure for the World Series in Hong Kong.
He noted that of the Development Team which won the Trinidad and Tobago Invitational tournament earlier this month, only himself, La Rose and Cabrera of Trinidad and Tobago have made the side for Uruguay.
Speaking of his team, Butts, who has played for Yamaha Caribs and Harvard Rugby Football Club in Trinidad and Tobago, said that his players “know what to expect, what to do in certain situations.”
He added that it took them three trips to the USA Sevens to last an entire game and to play at the level they now do. Butts led the West Indies rugby side to success in the last two Carib/LIAT tournaments.
La Rose, who plays at scrum-half and describes himself as the link between the backline and the forwards, says that participation at the USA Sevens has given him and his colleagues the confidence they now need to translate into wins.
“The team is depending on me not to make mistakes at scrum-half. If I do, everyone is affected in a big way. Everyone is important.”
A member of Pepsi Hornets club, La Rose has played at club level for Caribs and Northern in T&T.
He has played at the scrum-half position for the Guyana national team which won the West Indies championship in the North American West Indies Rugby Association tournament over the past three years and the Carib/LIAT International Invitational over the past four years.
McKenzie, currently playing for the Irish club, Bective in Dublin, and who has also played for the local Hornets club and Northern in T&T, is a winger. Named the leading “scorer/trier”in his Irish club, Mackenzie said that it was crucial that they win some matches against the big teams like Samoa, Fiji and Australia.
“People remember wins. They don’t remember performances,” he said.
According to President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Noel Adonis, he expects the performances of the three players, who have essentially been campaigning at the international level for the past four years to redound to the credit of not only the players but to the quality of Guyana’s rugby and Guyana as a whole.
The three players stand out as being among the best players on the team itself and Adonis feels that they would do well in the team sport in Uruguay and the subsequent tournament for which they are billed to play at the highest level in Hong Kong in March.
Crediting their levels of fitness to their own discipline and dedication to the sport, he noted that in the past the rugby union would have had to be pushing them but now they are pushing themselves to attain their superior levels of fitness, competence and skills to maximise on the exposure and competition they would be coming up against.
President of the West Indies Rugby Union, Kit Nascimento told Stabroek Sport that the team will be playing at the highest level of rugby in South America.
“We expect them to perform with credit and we expect excellent preparation for the Hong Kong Sevens in March.
“As President of WIRU and as a Guyanese, I am particularly pleased that Guyana has three players on the team”, he said.
The full team includes Devon Woodsede (The Bamahas),Jeremy Cooper (The Bahamas), Tom Healey (Bermuda), Luther Burrell (Jamaican out of England), Andre Cabrera(T&T), Jason Clarke (T&T), Butts, La Rose and McKenzie (Guyana), and Hollis Green (St Vincent and the Grenadines).
Joe Whipple is the Head Coach and Martin Varga of Barbados the manager.
The Rugby West Indies Team is sponsored by Butterfield Bank, Conyers Dill & Pearman, Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company, the Bahamas Rugby Football Union, the Bermuda Rugby Football Union, Caribbean Airlines and a number of private individuals.
