By Emmerson Campbell
Captain of the local rugby team, Ryan Gonsalves, is confident that his side will retain its NACRA Caribbean Championships title as well as qualify for the International Rugby Board 2013 Rugby World Cup.
These events are scheduled for August 25 and 26 at the Twin Elms Grounds in Ottawa, Canada.
The Ottawa tournament is combined with the NACRA Caribbean Championships, including Mexico. Guyana is the current champion having won the tournament six years in succession and is clearly the favourite to win again and contest against Canada and the USA for the two Regional Qualifying World Cup places.
The Rugby World Cup will take place in Moscow, Russia, next year. Nine core teams are automatically qualified to be joined by an additional 15 teams drawn from the Regional Qualifiers. The North America & Caribbean Qualifier will be contested by USA, Canada, the eight Caribbean countries and Mexico.
Gonsalves said in a recent interview that his charges have been working arduously on their fitness and conditioning so as to sustain the intensity that is required for 7s rugby.
Gonsalves said: “The squad is looking good everybody has been getting back in 7s shape physically and mentally and we are looking forward to the tournament”.
He continued “The team has really been working on fitness levels and doing a lot of drills because we are trying to up our fitness because coming out of 15s and going into 7s is pretty difficult because more speed and fitness is required so basically we have been working on a lot of speed work and plyometrics for the past two weeks.”
The rugby captain stated that although the locals are expected to win their seventh consecutive NACRA 7s Caribbean Championship title, they will be playing like underdogs.
“We have a pretty strong chance of retaining our title, we have been working hard on it and we are not going there to give it up that easy. It will be tough as the champion team because every team will be gunning for us and we have to work extra hard to remain at the top of the game,” Gonsalves said.
He added: “In Canada each of the Caribbean territories will be challenging us and it will be tough for us and without a doubt we will be respecting our opponents because 7s is a game that if you make a mistake or two it can cost a team the game so we need to be mentally and physically prepared.”
Gonsalves said the team’s mindset is simple, retain the NACRA title and claim one of the two places in the Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifier.
“We are going there with the goals of retaining our title and qualifying for the World Cup. The challenge will not only be for us to beat the Caribbean teams but Canada and the US because the top two teams will qualify for the World Cup 7s in Russia next year so it is a lot at stake, especially for Guyana because we are a top seeded team but as always we will do our best to make Guyana proud,” assured Gonsalves.
