Last year England-based rugby player Rupert Giles was a vital member of the national U-19 rugby team at the North American and West Indian Association’s tournament.
This year he is not.
The experienced and skillful Englishman is recovering from a broken leg he sustained earlier in the year.
Giles sustained the injury while attending a West Indies camp in preparation for the IRB Men’s Sevens competition.
Last year, fullback Giles was adjudged the Most Valuable Player (MVP) but his name was not among the squad of 22 players selected by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) to recapture the NAWIRA Under-19 Caribbean Championships.
Seven teams including Guyana will compete in the 15-a-side tournament which will run from tomorrow to July 11 in the Cayman Islands.
Guyana finished a rare fourth last year and will be hoping to return to their top bracket performance in this year’s competition. They are scheduled to contest their first match against the twin island republic, Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday.
The other countries in the tournament are defending champions Cayman Islands, yesteryears’ runners up Mexico, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, Bermuda and Bahamas.
Captain, Lancelot Adonis, in his second year leading the Guyanese contingent has the support of several other experienced team players who competed in the 2008 competition.
They are Allain Crawford, Clinton Mars, Colin Billingy, Gordon Andrews, Jamaal Yard, Javier Butcher, Matthew Talbot, Quincy Jones, Richard Coates, Ryan Dojoy, Rondell McArthur and Terry Adams.
Akeem Fraser, Carl Lewis, Claude Alexander, Mark Massiah, Rudolph Ogle, Soren Cox, Trevor Mathieson and Vailon Adams comprise the remainder of the squad that will be under the coaching staff of Laurence Adonis (head coach), Theodore Henry (assist. Coach) and Team Manager, Curtis Jacobs.
