By Treiston Joseph
It was a rematch of Guyana’s oldest rugby rivalry, the Pepsi Hornets against the Yamaha Caribs, and the inaugural Guinness seven’s one day tournament couldn’t have scripted a better tournament when it concluded on Saturday evening at the National Park rugby field.
However, while it was the best possible final one could hope for in terms of club prestige, the match was completely one sided as the Hornets won the match 29-10.
From opening kickoff to the final blast of the whistle, Pepsi Hornets looked, fitter, faster and stronger as a unit and that showed with how they overwhelmed a Caribs side that got the final on the backs of their experienced campaigners in Theo Henry, Claudius Butts, Valon Adams and Akeem Fraser.
Hornets quickly ran out to a 19-nil lead with Ronald Mayers scoring a try while Elwin Chased scored two tries in the first half. Ryan Hickson scored a conversion as well as Ryan Gonsalves for the first half 19-point lead.
On resumption of the second half O’Neil Charles scored for the Caribs to finally get some points on the board but a comeback seemed far away especially with Mayers and Chase combining for 10 points with a try a piece.
Adams scored a try for the Caribs to end the game that was practically from the time it began as Chase was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Captain of the Hornets, Ryan Gonsalves was happy with the win and noted that rugby needs more tournaments as the Guinness 7’s to help the sport grow but indicated that the squad will be enjoying the win ahead of a gruelling 7’s scheduled leading up to Hong Kong in April.
Chase who noted that he will not be in the national set up for Hong Kong was happy to show he still has some juice left in the thanks and indicated to News Room Sport that he is will to help with the preparation of the national team.
Meanwhile, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) finished third with a 19-nil win against the Guyana Police Force (GPF) while the Hornets females won the best of three female series during the day.
Guinness Brand Manager, Lee Baptiste shared that he was pleased with the brand of rugby while Director of Sport, Christopher Jones highlighted that the Government will contribute more to rugby because of their consistency with winning.
President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Peter Green, expressed his gratitude to the sponsors and players for success of the tournament.
