By Treiston Joseph
Head Coach of the national rugby Sevens squad, Kenneth Grant-Stuart, is working with the national Sevens side to not just iron out their weaknesses, but also to bolster their strengths.
Guyana will be ramping up training in the days to come in preparation for the Hong Kong Sevens, as well as the rest of the season. Grant-Stuart gave an update on the team’s preparation in a recent interview with News Room Sport.
“Well now we basically doing fitness; Mr. Barrington Brown is taking them through some paces we are doing strength and conditioning and we have a five-day programme that we have in the [National] Park.”
He added, “The inclement weather hampered us a bit, but now we get back on stream; the field is ready and now we can get to do more extensive work preparing for Hong Kong.”
Grant-Stuart identified two areas which he believes need improving. “Well as of now what we encountered in the Sevens in Trinidad we realise that our game have to become more robust and physical going into Hong Kong because it’s a higher level of competition.”
He continued, “The guys are aware of their requirements and I’m thinking that everybody is ready mentally, it’s just that we have to do the work now and get ourselves to that level.”
With Guyana set to face much bigger sides in Hong Kong, Grant-Stuart wants a much more physical squad, but the aim will be to utilise their number one weapon in the Asian city.
“We have other stuff that we working on in terms of speed and mobility and the fitness that we trying to take into this Hong Kong game, we trying to take it so much higher that against the size I don’t think the size would be much to worry about. Nevertheless, we still trying to get some robust men, you know good quality size to make the line-up; hopefully, we get Kevin McKenzie and some other guys to be in the squad,” Grant-Stuart pointed out.
Meanwhile, Grant-Stuart also indicated that team chemistry will be very important in order for the ‘Green Machine’ to perform well against some of the best squads in the world.
The 2017 Hong Kong Sevens will be the 42nd edition of the tournament, and the seventh tournament of the 2016-17 World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament will be played on April 7-9 at Hong Kong Stadium. Guyana and Jamaica will be the only two Caribbean sides at the event.
