United States coach Al Caravelli has chosen a 22-man squad for an eight-day selection camp ahead of the Wellington and San Diego legs of the International Rugby Board ( IRB ) Sevens World Series.


Caravelli will select a final squad of 12 over the course of the camp, which kicks off on 19 January. The selection will be based on fitness, defensive ability and form assessments.


The camp will provide Caravelli with a chance to work with a number of new players - Corey Blair (Huntington Beach Unicorns), Troy Hunt (White Plains), Mike Hicks (San Diego State) and Nicholas Hawkins (OMBAC) - who showed potential in the US's Rugby National Guard Men's All-Star Championships in December.


However, the cream of Caravelli's new crop is Austin Sage, of Red Mountain, who performed well at the last Under-19 Camp.

"Even though he is only 18 and has only been playing rugby for a few months, he is athletic, quick-footed, strong and has the pace we need in Sevens," Caravelli said.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing him perform during the week. If he works hard and puts in the individual time that our current squad puts in, I can see him making one of the traveling squads this year."

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Stag Trinidad Northerns retained the National 7s Rugby title Sunday but will not take part in the forthcoming Carib-sponsored International Rugby 7s tournament, scheduled for December 1 and 2 at the St Mary’s College Ground, Serpentine Road, St Clair.


Six teams, minus Northerns, the Marcus Minshall Cup winners, have earned the right to contest the international tournament.


Their omission came following a decision by the team’s management to skip the Classic Caterer’s 7s competition recently in Marabella.


A release yesterday stated that clubs must participate in all rugby 7s tournaments sanctioned by the Trinidad and Tobago Rugby Football Union (TTRFU) if they are to be eligible for the International 7s play-offs.


But on Sunday the team showed why they are national champions by defeating archrivals Caribs in the final 26-14 at the Serpentine Road Ground. As expected the men in the familiar blue and white strips enjoyed most of the possession with the Llewellyn Barrow Memorial Trophy at stake.


Harvard which placed fifth at the national 7s championship have replaced Trinidad Northerns for the International 7s draw.

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President of the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) Noel Adonis has made a call to the local corporate community to offer support to Guyana's rugby efforts since the local men's side is likely to represent the region at the World Cup Sevens championships in 2009.

Adonis was speaking at a dinner over the weekend arranged by German's Restaurant at New Market Street to honour the Guyana men team's success at the just concluded NAWIRA (North American, West Indies Rugby Association) Sevens championships in the Bahamas.


Guyana retained the men's title at the tournament which attracted 12 teams from North America and the Caribbean; the Guyanese had also won the tournament in 2006.


He said the business community should follow the lead of the Urling brothers Clint and Hubert who offered to host a dinner for the players in appreciation of their achievement.


"We need to see more support forthcoming from the business community," Adonis said.

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The Bahamas' national coach Andrew Davies was not overly impressed with the team's second place finish at the North America and West Indies Rugby Association (NAWIRA) Sevens Tournament held at the Winton Rugby Pitch on the weekend. Davies explained that the lack of fitness caused team Bahamas to finish in the same position as it did at the 2006 NAWIRA tournament in Barbados.

"We were aiming to be in the Cup but we found ourselves in the plate final again. We were in the plate final last year and lost to Martinique in the last minute," Davies said. "Each time we play in this tournament we get a little better but at the same time the other teams are getting better. Other countries go away after tournaments like this and come back even stronger, so making a small improvement is not going to get you up the rankings, you have to make a big jump in order to get ahead.
"The only thing that hinders us from getting the wins necessary to improve in the ranking is the lack of fitness. Just running regularly, easily cures this. The lack of fitness is the only thing that is holding us back," explained Davies.

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During the NAWIRA Sevens in Nassau last weekend the quality of play and the cooperation of the players and coaching personnel involved with all teams were beyond reproach.


This was reflected by the attitudes of players throughout the event. They should all be commended for the excellent conduct displayed.


The very few comments made were done so in a calm and positive manner; the vast majority of which being complimentary. On a number of occasions coaches took the time to demonstrate their approval of the efforts of the match officials, and this was well appreciated by all concerned.

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