Ryan Gonsalves, captain of the national 7s and 15s rugby team, is confident of his side’s chances for their first game in Round 2 of the Southern Zone of the NACRA Regional Qualifier for the 2015 Rugby World Cup which kicks off in Barbados tomorrow.
The six-time NACRA champions and the number two rated 15s team will wing out today to the Land of the Flying Fish.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport after the team held its final practice session yesterday at the National Park, Gonsalves noted that once his team plays to the best of their ability the victory against the Barbadians is assured.
Said Gonsalves: ”We are taking it a game at a time, we will have a different approach towards the Bajans. Unfortunately for them they played about two games already and they lost, so we have a pretty good chance against them to score once we play at our best of our abilities, we are not taking them for granted but we still remember that we are the second best team (15s) in the Caribbean and we have to live up to that standard.”
Trinidad & Tobago defeated Barbados 30 – 3, two weeks ago in the Twin Island Republic.
Gonsalves said the team has looked at tapes and has worked on correcting their flaws for the 15s style of play which is more structured than 7s.
“We were working on our offensive and defensive structures to get into the 15s mode since we were playing 7s almost all year. We worked on our scrums, set plays which is the line out which mostly needs improvement looking back at the previous games that we played here but as I said before we are confident of a victory once we play to our abilities,” said Gonsalves.
Guyana is in a must-win situation in order to keep their hopes alive after the finals of the Southern Zone Qualifier when they play Trinidad & Tobago at the Providence National Stadium on June 2.
In the event of the local ruggers defeating Barbados, the winner of the Guyana versus Trinidad & Tobago game in June will play the winner of the Northern Zone for the NACRA Caribbean Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifier Finals.
Bermuda defeated Guyana in the finals of the NACRA Caribbean Fifteens Championships last year at the Providence National Stadium to claim the top spot in the region.
Guyana had previously defeated Trinidad & Tobago in Trinidad and Barbados at the stadium.
The newly-elected President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), Colonel John Lewis, will serve as Team Manager, Theodore Henry as Coach and Barrington Browne as Team Fitness Trainer.
The team for the Barbados game will be without regular star players, Claudius Butts (injured), Richard Staglon and Ronald Mayers who are currently unavailable in Trinidad & Tobago and Rupert Giles who is in England.
However Ryan Hinckson and Delon Downer who are at present playing semi-professional rugby in Trinidad and Tobago will join the team in Barbados.
The team will comprise Gonsalves, Troy Arjune, Alan Crawford, Jason Tyrell, Avery Corbin, Ryan Dojoy, Dwayne Schroeder, Downer, Hinckson, Rondell Mc Arthur, Leon Greaves, Rodwell Hutson, Elwin Chase, Peabo Hamilton, Blaize Bailey, Delroy Gordon, Terrence Daniels, Jermaine Prowell, Cyon Kitt, Claude Alexander, Rickford Cummings and Joseph Rahaman.
