Tuesday, 27th July 2010Guyana Retain Caribbean Championship Sevens Title
Guyana win NACRA Sevens For 3rd Year Running
Guyana win the 2010 NACRA Women's sevens with a 14 points to 12 victory over Trinidad & Tobago in the final in Georgetown, Guyana.
On day 1 of the round robin phase of the tournament, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago ("T&T") ground out a 5-5 draw. With both sides committed to strong defense, neither team found the space to release their speed merchants. Mexico started day 1 where they left off in the 2009 NACRA Sevens with a 10-7 victory over Cayman. In their second match T&T ran out easy 27-0 winners against St Lucia while Jamaica easily overcame their neighbours Cayman 36-0. In defense of their title, reigning Caribbean Champions Guyana got off to a fast start, easily defeating Mexico 46-0. After conclusion of the first round of matches, T&T, Jamaica and Guyana looked like the ones to beat.
n the all anticipated match on day 1, Guyana and Jamaica cancelled each other out and recorded an historic 0-0 draw while St Lucia recorded their first win of the tournament with a 12-0 victory over Cayman.
On day 2 of the tournament, Guyana maintained their impressive form with an opening game 46-0 win over Cayman, while T&T also piled on the points against the Caymanians, running out 43-0 in their first match of the day. Jamaica's two victories over Mexico (19-12) and St Lucia (15-0) ensured a 2nd place finish in the round robin while in the much awaited match between Guyana and T&T, Guyana just edged out their rivals 12-0 to ensure the reigning champions finished as the no 1 seed going into the semi-finals, with T&T 3rd seed.
In the first semi-final T&T took and early 12-0 lead against Jamaica, through a converted Juliana Straker try , with Dalia Jordon-Brown adding a second. Lisa Fraser pulled the scores closer mid way through the second half with Anna-Kay Morrison adding the conversion to make the scores 12-7. As much as Jamaica tried to level the scores, the T&T defense held strong and advanced to the final and a more than likely re-match against Guyana.
In the second semi-final Guyana took a 14-0 half time lead with tries from Sabola Gray and Collette Hope with Trisha Munroe scoring both conversions. Despite some determined defense from St Lucia a 2nd converted try for Grey finished the game off to set up the as expected final for Guyana against T&T.
In the games for placings, Mexico were resounding winners over Cayman, 26-5, to take 5th place and in the 3rd / 4th place off, Jamaica defeated St Lucia 22-0 to take 3rd place.
In the final T&T took an early lead with a try from Jenilee Limada. Incredibly these were the first points that Guyana had conceded throughout the tournament. A minute later Straker extended the lead with a try under the posts and converted herself to extend the lead to 12-0, a lead they took into the interval. Guyana got themselves back into the game mid way through the 2nd half with a Davison try which Hope converted to take the score to 12-5. In the dying minutes of the game Hope scored the winner under the posts after all seemed lost which was duly converted. Final score 14-12 to Guyana. Guyana retain their Caribbean Championship title for the third year in a row.
Overall Standings:
1st Guyana
2nd Trinidad & Tobago
3rd Jamaica
4th St Lucia
5th Mexico
6th Cayman Islands
