President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Kit Nascimento says he plans to seek corporate sponsors and again appeal to government for support for the men’s national Sevens team to help them prepare for the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tournament in March.
Nascimento had previously hit out at government for their lack of support noting that other regional teams benefit from such support and the Guyana team has earned a place at the highest level of international rugby. “When it comes to competing on the international scene, that is where government should come in and render their support, in all of the other regional governments that is what happens, Jamaica puts considerable support behind their athletes and to their soccer and rugby teams and so does neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago,” Nascimento told Stabroek Sport.
He said that though Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony has twice failed to attend meetings with the GRFU and has not forwarded an explanation he plans to approach the government again on the issue. “Our appeal to the minister is to get us to at least one tournament possibly in Las Vegas and like I said before that has a price tag of around US $20,000” Nascimento said. 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 tourney after it demolished the Cayman Islands 29-0 at the North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) championships in Barbados in October to clinch its sixth successive title. The GRFU head noted that he has three potential sponsors in mind and plans to approach two or three corporations; however, he acknowledged that sponsors are more readily inclined to support local tournaments to get the maximum mileage.
He told this newspaper that as the winners of the NACRA championships the International Rugby Board will pay for the team’s air fare and accommodation but the lack of competition leading up to the tournament will put them at a disadvantage. “Unless we are able to compete in at least one major tournament before we get there it will mean that we have played no competitive rugby since we won the NACRA Sevens. And if that is the case we will be in Hong Kong unprepared,” he pointed out.
