By Floyd Christie
The 19-man rugby squad named after recent trials at the National Stadium will be reduced to the final 12-man team to represent Guyana at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Rugby Games after a period of encampment at the Splashmins Resort.
The camp will run from July 18-21, according to president of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), Kit Nascimento when contacted by Stabroek Sport via telephone yesterday.
Nascimento said that the 19-man squad will be “in full training at Splashmins,” as further preparations for the upcoming CAC Rugby Games which will be held at the National Stadium, Providence on July 24 and 25.
He also explained that the camp facility has been donated for use by the GRFU, compliments of Splashmins.
Five overseas-based players are expected for the camp and will be arriving in the country between July 15 and 18. “They [overseas based players] will be on the camp also and then the final 12 will be selected and announced on the 21st at Splashmins,” Nascimento confirmed.
Following the camp, the selected 12-man squad will be relocated to the Princess Hotel on July 21 where they will stay along with the overseas teams that will be arriving in the country from July 19-21 for the CAC Rugby Games.
The teams will remain at the Princess Hotel until the end of the North American and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Championships, which immediately follows the CAC Games at the National Stadium.
The overseas teams are Bahamas, Cayman, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Mexico. Five of the seven teams expected will remain for the NACRA Championships while Venezuela and Costa Rica will depart the country following the CAC Games.
Nascimento also noted that the NACRA women’s teams will begin arriving on July 24 and the men’s teams that are not already here will start arriving on July 26.