By Emmerson Campbell
Lack of funding mixed with poor preparation were the main ingredients that caused Guyana, the six-time NACRA Champions’ cookie to crumble at this year’s NACRA Championships in Ottawa, Canada.
Despite winning three matches and the Plate by mauling Trinidad and Tobago 27-0 in the Plate final, an upset loss to Barbados in the preliminaries (12 to 19) and defeat at the hands of Mexico (the new NACRA champs) in the quarterfinals (17 to 14) ended the hopes of the Guyana Jaguars lifting their seventh consecutive title.
During a media briefing at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) building yesterday , Coach Theodore Henry and Director of Sevens Mike McCormack both stated that if the team had the resources to play competitive rugby leading up to the competition, Guyana would have been the seven-time champions.
“In my view I think the lack of finance impeded us to that goal that we set for ourselves and that was retaining our championship,” said Henry. He added: “Like we mentioned before had we received the funds that we needed to travel a bit earlier this would have given us the opportunity to work with a couple of overseas teams instead of playing among ourselves.”
McCormack pointed out that because of funding, the local ruggers were unable to travel to Canada weeks in advance to practice and gel as a team and thus were at a disadvantage unlike other teams like Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Barbados who were exposed to high level competitions in the US and in Canada. Said McCormack: “We never managed to get a week together as a team in Canada prior to the tournament and that was directly related to the funding, because three players had to join us in Canada, two (Trinidad and Tobago-based starting forwards Richard Staglon and Ronald Mayers) arrived two days before the games because of visa issues so that meant no practice whatever with two of our senior player.” McCormack continued: “The Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Barbados were all exposed to high level of competition in Canada and the USA and there is no substitute for that, we had not played competitive Sevens rugby for six months because it was a combination of bad weather and lack of money.”
“Putting these factors together along with the increased performance of some of the other teams plus our own limitations caused us to be in the situation, a losing situation that we have not experienced in the last six years.”
McCormack also alluded to the fact that Australia- based Kevin McKenzie, who has played an integral part in the team’s six championships was unable to travel because of the lack of finance. “Other factors which have to be taken into account is the absence of Kevin McKenzie, that was directly related to the fact of funding. He is a real impact player in our back line and we did not have enough time to practice with the other overseas-based players to make amends for his absence,” bemoaned McCormack. The Director of Sevens was adamant that the sports community needs to be more vigorous in pointing out the importance of sport in a country and he also noted that a more lucrative sports policy should be put in place. “International rugby requires a level of investment and our sports community in Guyana in general have not been vigorous enough in both pointing out the importance of a serious sports programme and getting behind that concept with serious resources.”
“We are not crying sour grapes but while we have received sponsorship from the private sector, what we need is a sports policy that has much more resources that are being energized at the moment. We ourselves will be looking at ways and means of raising funds on our own to help us return to where we were, we have the talent and if we have the determination there is no reason why it can’t be done.” He continued: “Mexico is a considerably better team than they were three years ago. They are the same guys but they are bigger, they have been doing more work and building themselves up and they are playing better and that is because they are considerable resources behind Mexico that has allowed them to participate in international tournaments.” Henry echoed McCormack by stating that “Mexico has definitely improved and the reason they have improved is because they have been funded to play in a lot of international tournaments leading up to the competition. I could safely say that their stakeholders took it much more seriously than ours did.” Both McCormack and Henry insisted that once the support is there in the future, the once regional kings of Sevens rugby can reclaim their kingdom.
“All is not lost for us. I think with the right kind of support and with the government throwing their weight behind us the seven-a-side team could definitely get back to the winning ways,” Henry said. Also at the briefing were Captain Ryan Gonsalves and president of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), Colonel(ret’d) John Lewis.
