National rugby captain Claudius Butts and his troops arrived in Las Vegas yesterday ahead of this weekend’s International Rugby Board’s (IRB) USA International Seven’s World Series.
According to reports out the of the Guyana Football Rugby Union (GRFU), the team joined Technical Director, Joe Whipple, who was already in Sin City and will be getting acclimatized and training over the next few days.
Guyana, the four-time Caribbean Sevens champions, is the only Caribbean team participating in the 16-nation tournament.
The land of many waters will open its campaign for a place in the history books against Australia on February 13.
Guyana is also grouped with the number one ranked team in the world, New Zealand, and France.
Prior to their departure, Butts in an interview with Stabroek Sport, had said that his only major concern in the tournament was matching up with the ‘All Blacks’ (New Zealand) whom he said will be Guyana’s toughest challenge ever.
According to Butts, the French and Aussies are “beatable because one time they are up, a next time they are down.
“So I think once we play organised rugby, I think we can take them down, same thing goes for France, we can beat all these teams, but New Zealand would be a real challenge.”
Butts, who is also the West Indies rugby captain, will have the likes of England-based players Kevin McKenzie, Rupert Giles and Dominic Lespierre in his side.
The rest of the winger’s teammates are Ryan Gonsalves, Peabo Hamilton, Dwayne Schroeder, Richard Staglon, Theodore Henry, Ronald Mayers, Walter George and Albert La Rose.