Defending champions Guyana have retained the NAWIRA Sevens crown after edging Jamaica 7-5 in the final of the men’s event at the Winton Rugby Centre in Nassau, the Bahamas, over the weekend.


Guyana and Jamaica had both finished top of their respective pools on each day and met in the final after overcoming Martinique 17-5 and Trinidad & Tobago 10-0 respectively in the Cup semi-finals on Sunday.


The twelve participating nations had been divided into three pools on the opening day with Guyana beating the Turks & Caicos Islands 26-5, Barbados 29-0 and Mexico 26-5 to finish top of Pool A.


Jamaica ran out Pool B winners after overcoming Cayman 24-0, Bahamas 22-5 and Trinidad & Tobago 19-12, while representative team USA South topped Pool C with victories over Martinique 31-10, St Vincent & The Grenadines 31-0 and Bermuda 40-14.

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The three Pool winners and three runners up – Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and Martinique – would contest the Cup title on Sunday, with the other six nations battling for the Plate honours with two pools determining the semi-finalists in each.


Guyana continued their impressive form by defeating Trinidad & Tobago 24-14 and USA South 17-7 to finish top of Cup Pool 1, earning them a semi-final against the runner up in the Cup Pool 2. Trinidad & Tobago beat USA South 29-7 to also progress to the last four.


Their opponents there would once again be Jamaica, who topped Cup Pool 2 with a 14-0 defeat of Martinique and 33-10 win over Mexico. Martinique recovered from that loss to beat Mexico 17-5 to set up a semi-final with Guyana.


Trinidad & Tobago ended the tournament on a high by beating fellow losing semi-finalist Martinique 26-14, while Bermuda denied host nation a piece of silverware by edging the Bahamas 19-14 in the Plate final.


Bermuda and the Bahamas had both topped their Plate Pools before beating St Vincent & The Grenadines 21-12 and Barbados 34-5 respectively in the semi-finals. Barbados, like Trinidad & Tobago, then recovered to beat St Vincent and The Grenadines 19-5.

However, there was to be no double success for Guyana as Canada claimed the women’s title with an unbeaten record across the two days of pool action in a competition that also featured Jamaica and a USA Development team.


Two second half tries by Brittany Waters helped Canada to a 22-0 opening win over Jamaica, before Rosie Cobbett and Jill Harris touched down in a 24-10 defeat of Guyana to set up a meeting with the USA Development team, who were also unbeaten.


A brace from Cobbett helped Canada overcome a physical American side 19-7, while Jamaica picked up their first win with a 10-0 defeat of Guyana.


The four teams played each other again in the round robin on Sunday with Canada once more overcoming Jamaica 21-0, Guyana 38-0 and USA Development 19-15 to be crowned champions.


The USA Development side finished runners-up after beating Guyana 24-0 and Jamaica 12-0, with the latter the top Caribbean team following a second victory over Guyana – this time 12-0.