By Emmerson Campbell
Guyana’s sporting teams’ lack of international experience continues to plague them at the highest level and has resulted in defeats for two of its national teams in recent international encounters.
The problem first surfaced when Guyana’s Golden Jaguars football team played Mexico in their CONCACAF World Cup qualifying match at the Azteca Stadium earlier this month with Mexico strikers Carlos Salcido and Giovani Dos Santos scoring in the 1th and 15th minutes of the first half to effectively put the game beyond the Golden Jaguars’ grasp.
It reared its ugly head again on Saturday last when the Guyana Jaguars as the national rugby side is called opposed Bermuda in the NACRA final and Rugby World Cup qualifying match in Bermuda when again, the Bermudans scored six points within the first 10 minutes.
“First of all Bermuda played extremely well. They played a more technically correct game than we did and they made less errors than us,” Guyana skipper Ryan Gonsalves told Stabroek Sport yesterday.
He added:”We had some silly penalties that we gave away early that cost us six points within the first 10 minutes.”
Gonsalves said the players tried their best but the better team won.
“We tried our best. Everyone on the team played their part but as we say the better team won and that is what Bermuda did. They had home court advantage, they had the crowd support and they started so good we never really got going (offensively).
According to Gonsalves the Bermudans were simply better on the day.
“They limited us and they controlled the ball better, they retained the ball better and all those factors contributed to their victory.
“The better team won but we learnt from our errors and we will have to return stronger than before,” he declared.
The national rugby captain emphasized that his charges played to their strengths but said that the Bermudans defence and offence was too overwhelming.
“We played to our strengths but unfortunately Bermuda was technically sound and they forced us into a lot of errors and turnovers and we never got going.
“We were basically playing defence throughout the game but when we had opportunities to score they defended well and kept us off the score board,” said Gonsalves.
Gonsalves was adamant that the team will do whatever it takes to improve.
“We will have to go back to the drawing board and be more prepared in the year ahead and try to defeat Bermuda because this is the second year in succession that they have conquered us.”
He said the team was extremely disappointed by the 18-0 defeat.
“We were very disappointed as a team but we will come back again much stronger. We will have to make some changes in our style of play because we learnt a lot from that Bermuda game and we will make some changes to get better,” Gonsalves assured.
With the victory, the Bermudans will move onto CONSUR B to face Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Costa Rica from September eighth to 15.
The local ruggers will now turn their attention to the NACRA 7s World Cup Qualifiers in August.
