Guyana’s Rugby Captain, Ryan Gonsalves and his men will be looking to finish the America’s Rugby 15s Challenge on a high against Mexico tomorrow.
Following heavy defeats at the hands of the host, Colombia (71-7) and Paraguay (86-7), ‘The Green Machine’ will be hoping for a change of fortunes against the Mexicans.
“We are working to improve our all-round performance for the Mexico game. You don’t treat one game with more respect than the other, you respect every game, that’s why we talk about that every game, because the next game is the biggest one,” Gonsalves said yesterday.
The national captain added, “The mood in the camp is a bit down and we all are obviously very disappointed with our performances in the last two games. However, we are really working on our defensive alignment and speed in multiple defense phases.”
“Along, with our tactical plan for this game, we never beat Mexico in 15s rugby. We last played them in the finals in 2016 and fell short. So, this is a rematch. We had a good training session today and all will be clicking from the first whistle. We have to win this game and finish on a high on this tour,” Gonsalves continued.
The captain further noted that playing against much higher calibre outfits like Colombia and Paraguay was certainly a learning experience for the 15s squad.
“We have certainly learnt from playing at this high level against top flight sides. Colombia and Paraguay are well drilled sides who regularly play against top South America sides, such as Argentina, Chile and the list goes on.” He reasoned, “We need to get more exposure at this level in 15s rugby in order to be more competitive and even win games. We will do well and win Caribbean games, but this level is tougher to just show up and play. After all, our last 15s international was over a year ago.”
Besides ending the forgettable sojourn on a high, there is another incentive for defeating Mexico when action kicks off at 15:00hrs. The loser of the Guyana/Mexico match will have to play the Cayman Islands at home in an eliminator to determine the second Rugby Americas North (RAN) team for 2019 Americas Rugby Challenge.
“We are ready even though we have a few injuries in the camp, we will do our best to pull this one off,” the determined Guyana rugby captain concluded.
