After the performance of the Cayman Islands Under 18 rugby squad in Guyana against Jamaica, Barbados and the USA in the recent 2006 U19 World Cup Qualifiers, the USA management have invited the Cayman U18s to participate in a tournament in Arizona in February 2007 featuring the National U17 teams of the USA, Canada, Wales and Scotland.


Shortly after Cayman played the USA in Guyana the coaching staff of the USA team, and in particular the head coach Salty Thompson, invited the Cayman U18 team to play the USA U17 team next February. This invitation has now been formerly accepted and the teams of Canada, Wales and Scotland have also expressed solid interest in participating in the rapidly growing international field of teams.


According to the CRFU, the timing of the USA invitation is very important to the Cayman U18 program particularly as the Union successfully applied for and won the right to host the U18 World Cup Qualifiers for the North American West Indies Rugby Association in July 2007. It remains to be seen if Canada and the USA will have to qualify at this tournament depending upon their performances at the 2007 World Cup next Easter.


Playing on home soil, Cayman will definitely be hoping to beat all the West Indian opposition at this tournament and, with the prospect of several matches against top world class opposition, would hope to have a chance to play Canada or the USA and of qualifying for the 2008 U19 world cup finals.

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National Under 19 coach Steven Clark is very excited with the invitation and the way in which the programme is shaping up,

"I have known many of these athletes a long time coaching them at football, little league and other sports but I have to say that they are excelling at Rugby, don't forget we held the USA U18 to 35 points in a full U19 international, our team consisted of only three 18 year old players, five 17 year olds, five 16 year olds and two 15 year olds playing against 18 year olds. I must admit I had my doubts as to whether these players would be able to handle the physicality of this match, but they proved they could and we now have a year to get them ready for the Cayman tournament in July and about half of them for the 2008 tournament the year afterwards. This tournament in Arizona will be another opportunity for the players to test themselves against some of the strongest U17 teams in the world."

Technical Director Richard Adams added,

"It is pleasing that our efforts here in Cayman are being recognized on the field by our first class international opposition. At the end of the day Salty believes that we can compete with the USA U17 team and in saying that, also their U19 program. It is great of him therefore to offer us the opportunity to participate with the Big Brothers of Canada and the USA as equals and we wish to take that opportunity with both hands. I am pleased with the development of these players and Coach Clark is doing an outstanding job."

Talking about youth potential on the islands he observed,

"The value of the National U18 rugby academy is also starting to show its worth in the preparation of these players and with a new induction of Academy players set for January 2007 these new players will have excellent role models to emulate as the rugby on Cayman continues to grow. The Maples and Calder Fiji project and the six players who spent six weeks training and playing in Fiji as part of the Maples and Calder National Sevens Academy have all returned and also bring a whole new enthusiasm and desire to the game and we are all very excited to see them play in the next few weeks as well as coach and train younger players in the schools and communities."

Adding,

"The under nineteen team will be joining our National Waterford Alex Alexander cup competition this year and will play as a stand alone team against the other four clubs on the island. This will help them with their mental and physical preparation and dealing with bigger and more physical players. It will force them to rely on the great speed, agility and skill so many of them possess.

Many of these young Academy players will be selected to participate in the Caribbean Sevens in Barbados in November as part of the Cable & Wireless National sevens team and following on from that travel to Arizona for the spring internationals. Our annual Easter schools tournament is already getting filled up so this will offer our under 18 and under 16 teams more opposition come March."

Mr Adams went on to reveal that the Leicester Tigers, a professional team in England, have also invited the U18 squad to participate in training camps next June and to play some preparation matches, offers he says the CRFU would very much like to accept. This being perfect preparation for players competing in the July 2007 qualifiers to be held in Grand Cayman. He says it would also give the players a chance to be scouted by professional teams in the United Kingdom and a chance of contract offers.


Looking at the prospects of the Cayman producing professional rugby players Mr Adams had a simple message,

"I honestly believe that it will be from this group of players that Cayman's first professional players will develop and that is an exciting prospect indeed.

It has been a great year, as we get closer to the ultimate goal of placing players with professional teams throughout Europe. We currently have several players placed in the UK and Americas at good strong Rugby and Academic schools and Universities and Stuart McMillan will be the first to have try outs for a professional Rugby Academy in England this fall."

Offering thanks to the programme's supporters and sponsors he said,

"At the end of the day it is only resources that hold these programmes from further development, the enthusiasm of everyone involved is immeasurable and that drives us ever forward.

We have been very fortunate that so many private businesses have backed us financially and we continue to rely on this support for these initiatives so that we can accept these extraordinary invitations and opportunities, let's face it who would have believed four years ago that Caymanian Rugby players would be invited to Fiji, England and the USA based on the merits of their performances.

Of course we will always welcome new development partners as these programmes and opportunities grow so does the need for support from the private and commercial sectors. Accepting all of the invites for this group of young Caymanians will stretch us to breaking this year but at the end of the day that is what it is all about, finding ways to do things."

The upcoming stars of Caymanian rugby were photographed in action at last weekend's Cable & Wireless Summer Sevens Final.