– GRFU bemoans unfair treatment of the Green Machine in Mexico
By Akeem Greene
President of the Guyana Rugby Union (GRFU) Peter Green on Thursday spoke some stern words over the treatment the national rugby team faced playing the final of the Rugby Americas North (RAN) against hosts Mexico last Sunday in which the lost 32-3 and meant their 2019 World Cup dream could no longer be a reality.
A clearly peeved Green speaking to media operatives at the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) headquarters on High Street disclosed that the team were unfairly treated and the union will be lodging a complaint with the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF).
Peter Green
Green said, “I cannot say when we will be get a response from RILF since we have written the letter as yet but we had opinions from international referees and the consensus is to write world rugby; it was outrageous!”.
The GRFU President further vented that you will be reading that Guyana lost by a huge margin but that does not tell the tale of the truth , the truth is that from a legal point of view, it should be deemed null and void”.
According to the rugby head, the playing conditions were unfair due the field having “incorrect markings”.
“The layout of the field accepted by the referee and match commission was illegal; why we didn’t pick up was because a series of circumstances preceding the game, it is not for the union to use that as an excuse but the rugby field according to international regulations was wrongfully laid out in particular, the goal post was on the dead ball line, the try line was in front of the goal post which caused a series of confusion to players when they got the game going”, Green disclosed.
During the match, Guyana’s scrumhalf Ryan Gonsalves made good on his first penalty goal attempt in just the second minute of the game, but his form deserted him as he squandered three rudimentary attempts to leave nine points on the field. However, Green’s opinion is that the unusually perimeters played a factor in the players squandering chances.
“These guys are accustomed to playing rugby with the national team having the try line behind the goal post and that is where they were going ; we had our players on the new try lines but they kept going for the traditional try-lines behind the goal post” the president stated.
He added, “If you are kicker and you spent all your life kicking regulation line post and then to suddenly adjust to kicking further and harder, it is difficult”.
Similarly, Manager Robin Roberts explained that the issues were not only on-field; the arranged bus for the team to travel to the ground never arrived on time.
“We had an agreement at the mangers’ meeting that both teams would arrive at the ground two hours before but the bus never came; we had to go on the road and find out our transportation”, Roberts said.
He added, “When we got the field Mexico were already warmed up, I appealed to the match commissioner for extra time and he gave us 15 minutes”.
Quizzed on whether he felt it was deliberate attempt to frustrate Guyana, he responded saying, “I would say so, this was the fourth match played in Mexico and all three were played at a different venue, it was indeed a plan by Mexico to take it to that ground; it was a smaller field which suited their style of play”.
Head Coach Lawrence Adonis shared similar sentiment on the impact of the conditions on the players but still believed they should have won.
“The field was not comfortable, it had a quite a lot of softness because they had some rain everyday from morning to afternoon, the ground was messy; with the markings, some of the guys didn’t keep their concentration but in spite all of that I think we should have won that game because we left some points out in the first half”.
Due to the lost, Guyana slipped from an all time high of 47th on the World Ranking to 54th while Mexico have moved from 55th to 48th. Mexico will now face the South American B Championship winner in November.
