Ahead of their debut at the ongoing Commonwealth Games (CWG) on October 11, the national rugby Sevens team has been continuing intensive preparations with a couple of warm-up games.
As they await the rugby Sevens tournament’s opening day during their stint in India the national team participated in their first scheduled warm-up match against the current International Rugby Board, Sevens world series champions on Thursday.
Samoa is currently one of the best Sevens team in the world, having emerged as the top team in last February’s IRB world Sevens series held in Las Vegas, in which the national Sevens team also participated.
When contacted via email yesterday, the president of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) and the national team’s manager in India, Kit Nascimento, disclosed that the team had contested their first warm-up match in India against the Samoans.
According to Nascimento the team played a “no tackle contact” game against Samoa and was very competitive.
Nascimento added that the teams and management did not record the scores of the game, but the national team “held its own in four consecutive full Sevens games”.
“We do not keep score in these games but we were evenly matched both in defence and attack throughout the game” Nascimento stated.
The GRFU head added that the team’s “preparation has progressed extremely well and the team is in excellent shape”. Nevertheless, Nascimento explained the contingent had gotten mild infections.
“We all have mild throat infections which are prevalent in India at this time due to the very heavy dust conditions in Delhi”, Nascimento explained.
The national Sevens team will continue their warm-up matches today, when they take to the field against another rugby powerhouse, Australia.
Following this encounter Nascimento divulged that the team will rest and review video until they play their first game of the CWG Sevens tournament against Scotland on Monday at 10.06 am.
The Sevens tournament which will be played at Delhi University Stadium will kick off at 09:00 hrs on Monday with a clash between South Africa and Tonga. Guyana is also scheduled to compete again at 12:50 hrs against New Zealand and will challenge their Pool ‘A’ counterparts, Canada at 15:54 hrs.
