The national men’s rugby team experienced mixed results when the two-day Rugby America’s North (RAN) Championship kicked off yesterday in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Playing at the Meridian Fields in Providenciales, the ‘Green Machine’ got their campaign off to a perfect start with a 36-5 drubbing of debutant, Belize, but lost 7-15 in their other Group C matchup versus Bermuda.
In a post match interview following the Bermuda game, Captain Jamal Angus stated that he was “quite disappointed in the last game since we had several opportunities to put them away in the first half and we squandered them and they came back to bite us in the end.”
He stated that during today’s games, the Theodore Henry coached side will have to “tighten up defensively and execute our plays”.
Following yesterday’s games, the top two teams from each of the three pools advances to today’s Cup competition, while the bottom team will play for the Plate.
For the Cup competition, the six nations that advance will be re-seeded into two pools of three and play against each of their pool opponents in their first two games.
After those two rounds, the top-seeded nation in each pool will advance to the Cup Final, while the two second-place teams will play for bronze and the two third-place teams will play in the 5th/6th place match.
The tournament acts as a qualifier for next year’s World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series, with the winning side gaining the opportunity to compete for the 16th and final spot on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series.
