Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) President Kit Nascimento has hit out at the lack of government support for the men’s rugby team’s preparation for the upcoming Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tournament.
“We have earned a place at the highest level of international rugby and the minister [Dr Frank Anthony] has twice failed to attend meetings with us without returning a call to say anything, I call it extremely disappointing knowing that the government can find substantial amounts of money to give to money making domestic tournaments but not us, I just don’t understand,” Nascimento told Stabroek Sport.
The two meetings were set up with the Sport Minister to discuss funding of the men’s team to participate in warm up tournaments before next March’s Hong Kong Sevens tournament, the sixth round of the HSBC Sevens World Series 2011/12.
Nascimento said he found the actions of the minister to be discrediting to the players.
“Enough is not being done for the sport of rugby in Guyana,” he said. ”I find it as a discredit to the players who have done Guyana proud time and time again; the players have earned Guyana this honour by their hard work and without financial reward.”
Calls to the minister for a comment were unsuccessful.
The Hong Kong tournament, which will feature the best 24 rugby teams in the World, is the most prestigious of the World Sevens Series events.
The national team, currently in off season training, earned an invitation to the Hong Kong tournament after it demolished the Cayman Islands 29-0 at the North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) championships to clinch its sixth successive title.
According to Nascimento, substantial government support is crucial for the national team to replicate its regional success on the world stage.
“When you are playing at the world-class levels, which is what we are now doing, the cost for participation is extremely burdensome. Even though we’ve had very generous corporate sponsorship, we simply can’t do it unless the government comes on board in a real way,” he explained.
He said that the cost of preparation, airfare and accommodation per tournament for the team would be in the vicinity of US$20,000.
