Jamaican Ruggers ready to take attack to “Green Machine”

By Akeem Greene

The Jamaican National Rugby team has expressed confidence in being able to produce an offensive display to quell the exuberance of their Guyanese counterparts, popularly called the “Green Machine,” when the two sides clash on Saturday at the National Park Ruby field, Georgetown.

When the Guyana Time Sport spoke to visiting captain, Hubert Thomas on Wednesday after their arrival, he expressed confidence in being able to tactically outplay the local ruggers to secure a much needed win in the Rugby Americas North (RAN) 15s’ Championship South Zone Division as apart the 2019 World Cup qualifiers.

“We upgraded our scrum for this game, the last game against Trinidad my scrum didn’t work properly so we came with a totally different game plan and hope that the guys come and work,” the captain said.

Hubert highlighted that the key to their success is making sure they (Jamaicans) stick to their game plan and

not be over-run by the fierceness of the Guyanese.

“What we need to do is stick to the game plan and do what we do best, play our game, play the Jamaican game; if we try and divert and play the Guyanese game then we might suffer a defeat but if we stick to our game, we have a pretty good chance,” Hubert explained.

Antonio Baker, who plays second row props, expects a tough battle due to the physical style that Guyana plays with but still believes his side can inflict a defeat.

Baker said, “we heard that Guyana was a physical team and that they are really fit so what we looking to do is to nullify their physicality with our speed; I noticed that the field was kind of small so it going to be a very physical game and if the scrum come to work then the box will be there, so we will be trading hits all day.”

A great component of the local “Green Machine” is their swift style of play and break-away that occur by their wingers but Baker posited that Jamaicans also have several quick men.

“The small field means the plays will be closer so that will kind of nullify their speed, and Jamaicans are known to be fast, we have Usain Bolt, so we are fast also, we have fast wingers; when we went to Trinidad, we saw some weakness in the team so we upgraded that to have a more balanced team now and will be expecting a better performance from the team this trip,” the strongly built Baker explained.

The Jamaican Ruggers are confident they can rebound from their 38-14 defeat to Trinidad and Tobago in their opening round match as another defeat means their hopes of qualifying for the Word Cup will be shattered.

In this regard, Baker said, “as Jamaicans we are those people who go out there and grind and I think what is important that we remember that the game has already gone and we just need to look forward because if we lose this game, we are out, so have to just put the loss behind us and do what we have to do to move on to the next round.”

The match on Saturday will see Guyana starting as favourites after their 48 to 17 win against Barbados last month at the same venue but the Jamaicans will be desperate for a good showing to preserve their World Cup Qualifying campaign. Scrum off is at 16:00hrs ([email protected])