Guyana’s male and female outfits missed out on rugby sevens Olympic qualification last weekend in Cary, North Carolina after each team lost twice in the preliminary rounds.
After defeating Bahamas 38-19 in their opening game, the male squad went down to the Cayman Islands 14-12 and Canada 51-nil.
On the second day of the two-day championships, the ‘Green Machine’ regrouped to beat Trinidad 29-5 and Jamaica 19-5.
It was a bit too late as the seven-time NACRA champions finished fifth overall and third in the NACRA edition.
Women’s rugby
Despite losing to Trinidad 12-34 in the opening game followed by a 7-27 points defeat at the hands of Mexico, the women’ side continued to improve beating the Bahamas 21-12 before losing their elimination game to Jamaica 0-24.
The women ruggers returned to dispose of The Bahamas 24-0 a second time before falling to Cayman Islands in the fifth place playoff 5-12. However, the three-time NACRA champions still placed higher than The Bahamas and Barbados.
Coach Elwin Chase and his support staff said that the future looks bright for women’s rugby.
Back to the drawing board -subhead
According to a release from the GRFU, Guyana’s porous defense needs to be addressed by the management of the men’s team. Top teams USA and Canada played the Qualifier finals against each other with the USA dominating their opponents through exhilarating attacking skills to win 24-5 and gain the sole qualifying spot to Rio 2016.
Canada and Mexico now go through to the final qualifier to be played against the teams of the other regional associations that placed second and third in their qualifiers.
The USA women’s team also won their segment of the championship, running away with an 88-nil drubbing of Mexico.
Pan Am awaits
The national squads are expected back home today and tomorrow. A meeting with the press is planned for the latter half of the week. Guyana men’s team will finish their international participation for 2015 at the Pan American Championships in Toronto, Canada next month, coming up against USA, Canada, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico.
