The National Rugby Sevens team arrived in Guyana yesterday after their two-day excursion in Las Vegas, United States for the USA leg of the International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens World Series last Saturday and Sunday.
The team arrived at 07:45 hours yesterday morning at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport before travelling to Georgetown.
The national team’s return comes on the heels of some heavy losses in the IRB tournament, where they lost all of the five games they contested.
Guyana went into the tournament as underdogs, being the least experienced team on show alongside their South American counterparts, Uruguay.
And the five-time Caribbean Champions, who are feared in the Caribbean rugby arena, were outclassed when they bumped heads with the world-renowned rugby nations.
On day one Guyana suffered three defeats against England (49-0), Argentina (47-0) and France (57-7).
Guyana’s final game on day one was a rematch of their final game at last year’s IRB Series in Las Vegas when the came up against France.
Last year’s game ended 12-12 with Guyana barely missing out on the victory after leading until the final minute, but this time around the game ended with a very different score line as the French assaulted Guyana’s try line.
France scored their first try, which was converted, at 50 seconds into the game and continued their onslaught on Guyana. France totaled 10 tries in the game and converted seven.
However, all was not lost as Guyana’s Walter George secured the national team’s first try of the day after breaching the French defence. Guyana’s specialist kicker Ryan Gonsalves, converted George’s try to finally put Guyana on the scoreboard with seven points.
Meanwhile on the second and final day the national team was defeated by Wales (54-0) and Japan (24-7) in their last game of the tournament.
Claudius Butts scored Guyana’s second and final try of the tournament against Japan. Butt’s try was followed by the conversion from Dominic Lespierre and until mid-way through the second half Guyana was in good 12-7 position against the Japanese.
The USA round of the IRB Series was won by South Africa after they defeated Fiji 24-14 in the final to take their first Cup title of the World Series since April 2009. When contacted yesterday, President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), Kit Nascimento said that he will be meeting with the management of the team this morning to discuss all aspects of the team’s performance in the tournament.
He stated that he could not comment on the team’s performance until meeting with the team’s management, but the GRFU will hold a press conference at Olympic House at 11:00 hours tomorrow to formally report on the team’s participation in the just-concluded Series.
England and New Zealand are currently the joint leaders of the World Series with Samoa and Fiji following in third and fourth respectively.
The USA-round winners South Africa hold on to the fifth spot as the Series moves on to Hong Kong for the next leg.
