The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter 

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

TEAM Bahamas will look for a strong finish at home this weekend in the round robin finale of the North American Caribbean Rugby Association Championships.

The team is scheduled to host Jamaica 4pm Saturday at the Winton Rugby Centre, the third match of the series for each team in the North Zone Cup League.

National team head coach Jose Viana said the team has improved dramatically since the NACRA Championships began in earnest nearly two months ago, but will need to perform at its peak to upend one of their rivals in the region.

“We have improved quite a lot since the team played its first friendly against Cayman back in May. All of the matches we have had over the past few months they have benefitted us and have been necessary for development because it is hard to get continuity, when you play only a few games a year. When you compete at this level there is a level of intensity, speed, and mental toughness you will not get at the club level at home so it takes a while to adjust to that,” he said.

“These past few games have helped the team to concentrate and have given them the opportunity to focus on the game, away from life issues and bond together.” 

Viana said he urges the Bahamian public to be the driving force behind the team’s performance.

“The heart and the willingness to play will be very evident. It is one of the biggest attractions of the sport. Even if you don’t understand the rules or follow rugby this will have some appeal to you so we want as many members of the public to come out as possible,” he said.

“Win or lose, the experiences thus far have all been very positive. It is roughly a month between games and all you had to do was keep up with practices and do your best to be prepared. We knew from the beginning that the championship was going to be very long, we have had close to 30 players that have been available for the games, with a lot of turnover, constant changes to put our best team on the pitch.”

Prior to the NACRA Championships, the Bahamas lost the aforementioned warm-up friendly to Cayman, 35-7. They opened play in the tournament on May 17 with a 33-18 loss to Mexico but rebounded with a 13-11 win over Turks and Caicos on May 31.

In other matches in the group, Mexico topped Jamaica 34-8, while Jamaica defeated Turks and Caicos 10-6.

The 2014 NACRA Championships have been divided into two competitions and four divisions, accompanied with a relegation and promotion system playoff. 

The two competitions are the Championship League and the Cup League.

The Bahamas is a member of the Cup League which features eight teams in two divisions, North and South. 

The North Cup League features the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and the Turks and Caicos Islands. 

The South Cup League includes the British Virgin Islands, Curacao, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The winners in the Cup League will earn an opportunity to play their way into the Championship League by facing off against the third place side among the Champions.

The League consists of two three-team divisions with Bermuda, Cayman and the USA South making up the North, while Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago are in the South division.

“Our first team meeting and practice with the entire side was that morning before we played Cayman and it definitely showed on the pitch because rugby is a very co-ordinated sport. The good thing is that those were things we have corrected,” Viana said. “For the NACRA Championships, we have improved on our ball possession.”

In the last NACRA Championships, the Bahamas was relegated to Division 2 after tbeing eliminated from the NACRA 15-a-Side Championships and IRB World Cup Qualification contention.

The Bahamas fell 16-8 to Bermuda in their second game of the North Zone group.

In game one, the Bahamas fell 27-7 to the Cayman Islands. It was the first time Cayman beat the Bahamas since 2003.

“We can get back to group one and become a mainstay,” Viana said. “The critical thing to develop any sport is to develop the youth programme and develop it early on. Maybe not in the full sense of the game but a beginners version of it. Rugby is something that we have to start early on because it is much easier to teach kids, develop the sport, widen the base, and grow through the club system to build the national team.”