SVG Rugby players excel

St Vincent and the Grenadines Rugby Team – the Amazona Guildingii’s – surprised their hosts, Barbados at the North America West Indies Rugby Sevens Tournament last weekend, with a resounding 22-17 victory in the opening match. Tries by Sims Patterson, Anthony “Pit-Bull “ Joseph and Aniso Lewis meant that SVG was leading 15 to zero at half time. A final try by Aniso Lewis as he burst through the Barbados defence led to an impressive 22-17 victory over the West Indies Champions.{{more}}

Spurred on by this impressive performance they then took on the eventual winners of the tournament, Guyana and were soon 5 points up through a try by the impressive Recardo “Yellow” Dallaway of Sion Hill who was later selected for the West Indies Sevens Team. However in the second half, Guyana’s superior fitness showed through and they won the tie 14-5. In their next match against Bermuda, SVG went down 28-35 points despite impressive running and tries from Phillip Alvis, Yellow, Aniso Lewis and Tetsuta the impressive Japanese adviser working in SVG.

On day two in the Plate Competition, SVG again started impressively, defeating the Dominican Republic by 17 points to 15, with tries from Phillip Alvis of North Union and Tetsuta. In the semi-final of the Plate Competition, SVG lost by 22 points to zero to a vastly experienced Bahamas team. However the SVG team can take lots of positives from this performance, and all that is needed is improved fitness levels for them to compete for the top prizes in the Caribbean. In 2006 they have been hampered by limited playing facilities whilst preparations for the Cricket World Cup have meant they have been unable to use their traditional home ground at the Sion Hill playing field for most of the year.

Near future plans include the establishment of a home for Rugby in St. Vincent and the team is now preparing for the Trinidad International Sevens on December 3rd and 4th, where they will field a mens and women’s team in close cooperation with St. Lucia. The men’s team will be known as the Windward Island Saints, and the ladies’ Team the Windward Island Undertakers. The ladies’ Team will be captained by the impressive Alexia Glasgow, who will again be selected for the West Indies ladies Team.