Green Machine firing on all cylinders for Trinidad clash

“We are throwing everything at the Trinidadians” – GRFU President

By Akeem Greene

Guyana’s National Rugby Team, the Green Machine will rev at full throttle when they battle Trinidad and

Tobago on Saturday in the 2019 World Cup Men’s 15s qualifier in the Rugby America’s North Regional Championships on Saturday June 18, in the twin island Republic.
President of the Guyana Ruby Football Union (GRFU) Peter Green in an address on Wednesday to the media, sent a strong message to his Trinidadian counterparts that his ruggers will be churning out a top performance when they tackle the Calypso Warriors in what he deems “a must win game”.
“I have asked the management of the team not to spare anything, we are throwing everything at the Trinidadians; we are not there to talk about another bad day at the office, we are there to win, we are there to move forward, we are there to justify the faith in the few sponsors who continue to back us,” the Green firmly stated.
The President asserted that the team will correct the mistakes of the past to secure the all important win.
“This game is very important not just in terms of national pride or revenge from our close lost last year 22-20; looking back we regret a lot of our miss kicks so this year you find that Ryan Gonslaves has been in tremendous form and that is the major man that we depend on to kick,” the Rugby head posited.
Coach of the team, Lawrence Adonis said that the team needs to be wary of any form of complacency against the home side.
Adonis explained, “The style of play we have been using is more successful to us, as we have been able to control the game more but we don’t want people to be too over confident and think the game is won, the game is always played on the park.”
Though Guyana defeated Jamaica in May, they were lot of technical areas that needed improving and the Adonis was knowledgeable of those faults and plans to address them.
“I think mostly we fell down in consistency and some of the things we got do, is to prepare to do it for 80 minutes but the things we are really lacking is something worldwide, like defending the ‘maul’ they hardly have people who can do that so we will try our best to offset that problem,” were the words of the confident coach.
Return of Kevin McKenzie
A major boost to the Green Machine is the return of the experienced and dynamic Kevin McKenzie who now resides in Australia, playing in the various professional leagues.
Adonis was quizzed on what Kevin Mackenzie can offer the team that is currently building a more youthful squad to play at the world cup.
“He [Kevin McKenzie] brings a lot of experience, he is one of the people we really relied on in the past because right now we have been blessed with some young players we have been working with and along with some of the senior guys, trying to organise a group of people that we are working with and moving forward, so we want to bring Kevin to see how best he can help us move forward,” Adonis responded.
Right winger Avery Corbin expressed his own confidence ahead of the important match and that the team is ready to play their best.
“For me and the rest of players, we feel confident but not over confident, against Trinidad we trying to work everything that we practice and put it together; the team is bonding great from the last two camps we had,” the player stated.
Both Guyana and Trinidad had convincing victories over their respective opponents but in keeping with previous ties between these two nations, it is expected to be another gruelling test when scrum-off occurs at 16:00 Hrs at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.
Guyana’s Squad: Jason Tyrell (Hornets), Rondel  Mcarthur (UG Wolves), Rickford Cummings (Hornets, Kevon David (Yamaha Caribs), Jose Felicien (Hornets), Dwayne Schroeder (GDF), Jamal Angus (UG Wolves),  Delroy Gordon (Hornets),  Ryan Gonsalves (Hornets), Avery Corbin (GDF), Lancelot Adonis (UG Wolves), Partrick King (GDF), Claudius Butts (Harvards/Yamaha Caribs), Godfrey Brooms (UG Wolves ),Osie McKenzie (UG Wolves ), Cyon Kitt (GDF), Triton Brathwaite (GDF), Grantly Williams (Police Flacons), Toby David (Hornets ), Richard Staglon-Trinidad (Caribs/Yamaha Caribs), Ronald Mayers (Trinidad Northerns/Hornets), Pibo Hamilton (Trinidad Northerns/Hornets), Kevin McKenzie (Latin Heat Australia /Hornets ). ([email protected])