Following Saturday’s 20-nil thrashing at the hands of Trinidad and Tobago in the NACRA Senior Men’s 15s Southern Championship game, the focus of the national ruggers now shifts to domestic competitions and international seven-a-side rugby.
The former regional kings of the NACRA Sevens main aim later this year is to regain the championship which was won by the rapidly improving Mexican team last year after a six-year reign.
“The focus now shifts to our local tournaments and championship seven-a-side rugby.” said national Coach Theodore Henry during a post match interview with Stabroek Sport on Saturday.
“We lost the NACRA sevens championship last year and we want it back because we know that championship belongs to us, so we are going to go back to the drawing board with the goal of regaining the NACRA sevens that we had for so long.”
So what are some steps to be taken that would help in Guyana’s quest to regain the championship?
“Well normally our Sevens training for the November tournament starts around September but one of the ideas myself and Barry have (Fitness trainer, Barrington Brown) is that we want to start Sevens preparation from now.”
Henry added: “We will try to get together with the administrators and select an elite squad and put them in the gym. We want to do like three months of gym work before we start the conditioning training.”
Why start preparations for a tournament half-a-year away?
“I think in order for us to regain the Sevens championship we need to do things that we have not done before because if we continue to prepare the same way that we prepared before we will most likely get the same results,” the national coach pointed out.
“Last year we did the regular preparation that we normally do for a championship but where there is a champion, there is always a challenger out there working harder so we need to make changes,” he said.
The NACRA 7s will be staged in November in the Cayman Islands.
