2016 was certainly a productive year for the sport in 2016, with the team managing to reassert its dominance in the Caribbean while making some leaps in the international arena.
Despite the relevant challenges of guiding and settling a young and inexperienced group of members on the Executive Committee, several initiatives and programs
Strong crowd support for the Green Machine also saw them produce some stellar performances
aimed at ensuring a wider base of players, administrators, coaches and referees from the grass roots to elite levels were reintroduced in partnership with World Rugby GIR (GET INTO RUGBY), the Ministry of Education and Corporate sponsors to play and grow the sport outside of the traditional area of Georgetown with promising results.
Amongst these initiatives was the resuscitation of an MOU with the Argentina Government in tandem with the Ministry of Education to prepare a blueprint for cooperation and long term involvement of High Performance Rugby training and development. Despite the loss to Mexico the methods introduced by the Argentina Coach were well received by the National players necessitating a much longer term involvement and period of adjustment for tangible results.
Highlight of the various activities for 2016 was the holding of a successful five-day local work shop comprising over sixty participants from thirty-three schools, communities and club based player membership who have been tasked with introducing the skills and knowledge of the game within their respective regions in Partnership with the Ministry of Education along with assistance from World Rugby via Regional GIR Co-coordinator Kwanieze John culminating in a pilot mini festival / school championship in December involving over 198 (male and female) participants from within Region 4.
The Union has now been able to identify and correct several organizational errors and shortcomings in time for the launching of the 2017 Schools Championships. The Union acknowledges the dedication of its Volunteers and Development Officers towards this achievement.
Internationally
The Senior Men’s XV as well as VII’s teams and to a lesser extent the Women’s senior VII’s teams continued to hold the Guyana Flag high with superlative performances at the governing body for the Region RAN (Rugby Americas North) Championships with the senior men capturing the XV Southern zone segment defeating Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in the process climbing to a best high World ranking of 47th of 103 Countries before falling to Mexico in the Overall Championships and a final 2015 World ranking of 55th ending the year seeded as No. 1 in the southern zone and No. 2 Overall to Mexico going into the 2017 RAN Regional XV’s Championships.
In the shorter format of the game VII’s the Senior Men Caribbean Champions made it eight times by defeating nemesis Trinidad and Tobago in the finals of the Caribbean segment before falling to Canada in the overall Finals (in the process becoming the only nation to score a try against the 2015 Pan American Champions and world ranked No. 18 team) to qualify to participate at one of the World’s prestigious sevens tournament in Hong Kong.
It is the opportunity to hone their skills against the world’s best in April coming, giving much needed practice prior to playing this year’s Caribbean VII’s championships which will serve as the qualifier for the 2018 World Cup sevens as well as Commonwealth Games.
On the distaff side (in comparison to 2015 where they had lost all of their matches) the Senior Women’s VII team and former three time Caribbean champions returned to this year’s Regional sevens Championships under the guidance of former national player and coach Theodore Henry with phenomenal success winning the Bowl finals defeating the highly touted Bahamas team twice, Dominican Republic and Bermuda while losing to the higher ranked Mexico and eventual Caribbean runner ups Trinidad and Tobago who in turn lost to Jamaica.
Currently the ladies are listed as being ranked 27th in the World with Trinidad and Tobago (22), Jamaica (26) being the only Caribbean teams higher ranked.
The Junior Men’s U/19 Team returned to international competition at the RAN XV Championships in Miami after an absence of 3 years (due to financial constraints). Despite not winning any of their matches they showed obvious potential by scoring tries in good build ups against their more seasoned opponents’ that augers well for the future with several current members eligible for another two more years at this level.
