Men’s rugby team set for tournament debut
(CNS Local Life): The FFP Cayman National Men’s XV squad will be competing for the first time at the Americas Rugby Challenge (ARCh) from 23 August-1 September in Medellin, Colombia. The ARCh enables second-tier countries like Cayman to progress further in the sport of rugby. Cayman qualified for the tournament with a 58-14 drubbing of Guyana in Grand Cayman in February this year.
Cayman will face Colombia on 25 August, Paraguay on 28 August, and then fellow Rugby Americas North members Mexico on 31 August.
Director of rugby and Cayman men’s team coach, Jovan Bowles, said of the upcoming competition that he was “grateful to World Rugby and Rugby Americas North for providing these stepping stones to better competition”. He told CNS the tournament gives “incentives (to) the players to know that the effort put in the sport as an amateur has lucrative rewards, that doesn’t necessarily fulfil the pocket but fulfil the love for the game.”
Bowles stressed that is “what Cayman rugby is all about, an amateur union just proving that you can be a 9-5 man or woman but your passion and love for rugby will always be that much more rewarding”.
Of the ARCh event, he added, “We have a goal in mind, we will execute as well as we can and push to ensure that our goal is reached, but the game of rugby will decide on the day which way the ball will bounce and it will be important to ensure that the Cayman rugby men are prepared well enough to adapt to the situation at all times.”
