World Rugby to subsidise airfare for Olympic Qualifier

– GRFU inviting u-19 players to register

Ruby Americas North (RAN) and World Rugby have taken the decision of assisting Caribbean Teams with 50% of their airfare to participate in the qualifying sevens tournament set for April 2018 in Las Vegas USA for a place in the finals of the Youth Olympic Games in Argentina in November 2018.

In a release on Wednesday, the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) were quoted as saying, “GRFU is therefore inviting the players whom are born during the period of January 2000 to December 2001 to register with the union with a view to being selected to the National Team.”
With the age group being 17 to 18 years of age, the union is hopes to attract more students to the exciting sport and more so encourage them to engage Rugby which is an option in the Physical Education and Sport syllabus (Effective for examinations from May, June 2014).
Guyana’s Green Machine has been a dominant force in the sevens version of the sport with most or all of its players coming from the Under 19 school programmes. It’s Under 19s in March this year defeating a Stage Cayennaise Mixed Team 21-19 in French Guiana.
Since the debut of Rugby Sevens to the Olympics in Rio last year, greater emphasis has been placed on marketing the seven aside version of the Rugby as an Olympic sport with the International Olympic Committee’s decision to retain all 28 sports that featured at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games programme.