By Emmerson Campbell
The National Men’s Sevens Rugby team currently in Canada suffered a speed bump along the road on their quest to secure their seventh consecutive NACRA Sevens Caribbean title.
During a telephone interview with the team’s captain Ryan Gonsalves, he disclosed that Trinidad and Tobago-based starting forwards Richard Staglon and Ronald Mayers who are integral members of the team were unable to secure visas for Canada.
The absence of Staglon and Mayers will be a major blow to the team because another integral member of the team, Australia-based Kevin McKenzie was ruled out of the tournament because of lack of funds.
Gonsalves noted that the six-time NACRA champions will definitely be lacking a full strength team but will remain focused and take one game at a time and try to play unbeaten at the two-day tournament which kicks off this Saturday.
Said Gonsalves: “We have to work with what we have here, there is nothing we can do about what happened in terms of the visa issues with Staggy (Staglon) and Mayers. It’s a huge gap that was created by their absence because without Kevin, Staggy and Mayers it’s such a huge gap to fill due to their experience and playing abilities.”
He added: “We definitely will miss them and it will definitely affect the team because we won’t have the depth we usually do.
“However we are here and we will make the best of whatever resources we have here. Everyone will have to step up and we just have to play as a team and take it a game at a time and hopefully we can rally through this tournament even though we had all these bumps in the road, we will try to stay positive and stick to the goal,” Gonsalves said.
The team is also hoping to finish among the top two countries in the Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifiers.
The local ruggers (The Rugby Jaguars) is the number one seeded team in Pool C – the Cayman Islands, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados are the other countries in that group contesting the Rugby World Cup Regional Qualifiers.
The USA heads Pool A with Jamaica and St. Vincent & the Grenadines being the other countries while Canada heads Pool B with Mexico, Bermuda and The Bahamas as the other competitors.
The national side will kick off their first match at the Twin Elm Rugby Park in Ottawa on Saturday at 9:40 hrs (Canadian Time) against Trinidad and Tobago, followed by Barbados three hours later. They will then take on The Cayman Islands at 15:20hrs.
According to team manager, Mike McCormack, a training session was held in Toronto yesterday which was followed by a fund-raising event at the home of Cleveland Schroeder, a Guyanese resident in Canada.
Today the team will travel by road to Ottawa and play a scrimmage against a local side. Tomorrow the players will engage in light training for the tournament the following day.
The team is being coached by Theodore Henry while the physiotherapist is Barrington Browne.
The full squad reads: Elwin Chase, Avery Corbin, Peabo Hamilton, Blaise Bailey, Rupert Giles – England, Claudius Butts, Vallon Adams, Rickford Cummings.
The reserves are Lance Adonis, Claude Alexander and Troy Bascom.
The team is scheduled to return to Guyana next Wednesday.
