National ruggers eyeing more CAC Games success

The Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU), during a press briefing at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA), Liliendaal, on Monday (June 4), announced a 13-man squad for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games being staged in Barranquilla, Colombia, from July 19 to August 3.

The GRFU disclosed the travelling contingent includes: Dwayne Schroeder (Captain), Richard Staglon (Vice-Captain), Claudius Butts, Patrick King, Avery Corbin, Peabo Hamilton, Ronald Mayers, Jamal Angus, Godfrey Broomes, Rondel McArthur, Osei McKenzie, Lancelot Adonis, Ryan Gonsalves, Lawrence Adonis (Coach), Philip Barrington (Physio) and GRFU President Peter Green as manager.

In the coming days the aforementioned players are expected to be engaged in some rigorous training as the union seeks to emulate some worthy performances of the past at the Games.

In 2010, they won gold at the Games held in Puerto Rico which still stands in history as the only team from the country to have delivered the top prize at the Games since.

“From this week, we are supposed to be pick up the momentum. We are not starting from scratch because we have a lot of people doing the fitness work with Barrington [Browne], but we want to get everyone together but we have had a good start to the programme and we have a nice programme  running”,  Adonis conveyed.

A dominant force in the Caribbean, having being six-time champions, Guyana should produce a top performance at the championship, according to the veteran coach.

“Come this tournament I think we are supposed to do better than we did last time because we had a short space of time to work; now we have a little time on our hands so we will be picking up momentum this week as we work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Saturdays if possible since the ground is in a little deplorable state right now,” he said.

While financial difficulties will prevent the ruggers from gaining practice on foreign opponents, Adonis stated they will strategically pick teams to play simulation matches.

The national team is slated to depart these shores on July 29 and return on August 4. They qualified for the Games despite surrendering their Rugby Americas North title 24-28 to Jamaica in Mexico City last November.