ROADTOWN Tortola, BVI, April 8th 2011 - It represents the very first time the Virgin Islands (VI) will play in a full International Rugby Board sanctioned match and also the first time they have taken part in the NACRA Tournament, which culminates in naming a Caribbean Champion for 2011.
The team was announced at a special presentation night at Captain Mulligan’s on Tuesday, when in the presence of His Excellency, the Governor, William Boyd McCleary, each player was given his team shirt.
The full squad for the match is: Frank Kalama, Patrick Dennis, Clinton Hempel, Jonathon Bailey, Alex Davidson, Andrew Simmons, Heath Copeland (vice captain), Andrae Adams, Marc Sorrentino, Nicolas Recondo (Capt.), Okeito Brown, Tom Chapman, Dustyn Molver, Donovan Staple, Franklyn Victor, Damion Brown, Roan Thornton, Simon Knight, Jeovan Thompson, Jerome Springette, Greg Boyd and Lester Hamer. Sherlock Solomon is the Coach and Ronan Kuczaj, Manager.
With a win against St Vincent, which won’t be easy, the VI would then face either St Lucia or Barbados, a match that is scheduled to be played in the VI. The Rugby Association are currently discussing the possibilities of using the Shirley Ground for the match (if they win), but would need to erect Rugby Posts at either end of the pitch to conform to NACRA and IRB standards.
“It would be great for the game if we win and can bring Barbados back to the BVI for the next round” stated Coach, Sam Solomon, who has been a big driving force behind the game’s expansion in the Territory. “We can’t take St Vincent lightly though, they are a young fast team and we will have to use all our experience as well as making sure we stick to our tactics and stay disciplined,” he added.
Tthe BVI rugby squad presented with their team jerseys by the Governor as they prepare to make history against St Vincent.
Teams entered into the competition have been separated into North and South zones. VI was put into the South zone and is seeded 5 out of 6. Winners of the 2nd round match will then go on to play a round robin with the top two seeds in our zone Guyana (2) and Trinidad (1) for a place in the finals vs. the winner of the North zone competition.
The North zone consists of Bermuda (1), Bahamas (2), Mexico (3), Cayman (4), Jamaica (5) and USA South (6).
Along with some words of encouragement from Alan Bates, CEO of main Sponsor, Digicel came the announcement that although he had to miss the game due to other commitments, he had been able to arrange the game to be videotaped and that the match will be shown on the big screen next Thursday at Mulligan’s.
Article taken from Virgin Islands News Online
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