In their first outing to the NAWIRA U19’s Caribbean Championships and notably with a very young team the Bahamas rounded off their tour to the Cayman Islands with a tough game against Guyana on Thursday.

Having lost heavily to Bermuda earlier in the week the Bahamas were looking to end their tour on a high note and more importantly learn about playing at the international level.

With a team that has been playing together only a mere 6 months it was therefore good to see that whilst they ended their trip to the Cayman Islands winless, they were starting show glimpses of a more focused and rounded team that could use both forwards and backs to retain the ball and play phases to work their way up field. As testament to that end the Bahamas earned their first and only try of the tournament as a result.

At half time Guyana were 22-3 in the lead in what was a see-saw kicking game. When the Bahamas did chose to run with the ball they still chose to avoid spreading the ball out wide to their speedy wings that had been begging for the ball all tour and yet again the Bahamas thought it a wiser choice to try and beat a more experienced side with blunt force trauma by sending in their stout yet strong forwards to run the ball into isolation.

Guyana clearly bought into the game plan and at times were guilty of the over zealous Bahamas style game play but with a healthy points difference they could afford to play up to this more “bloody nose” style of school boy rugby.

Whilst the Bahamas seemed to be unable to break habits of old they did at times look to hold the ball up in contact long enough to allow for support runners and even looked to offload the ball in the tackle but the ball never spread far away from a mêlée of forwards looking to pulverise each other into the ground.

With all the hard hitting at the breakdown the game was yet again marred with long pauses for injury much to the disappointment of the small crowd that had gathered in hope of seeing more of the high paced rugby which had been provided in abundance only the day before by Trinidad, Mexico, Jamaica and Cayman.

The final score of 39 -10 was never in doubt against a Guyanese team who whilst also young have ample experience in their coaching staff and players who have played at this level before. Guyana are indeed 2 time Caribbean Champions! Bahamas will go home buoyed with the knowledge that their young side has time to grow and come back to this competition with many of the same faces unlike other teams who will lose many of their stars due to age limits.

Guyana will now move onto play Bermuda for the Bowl on Saturday 11 July at 1:30pm followed by a 3rd place playoff between Jamaica and Trinidad and 3pm followed with the day’s highlight match being the Cup final between Mexico and the Cayman Islands at 430pm.

Source: Heaven's Game