3rd Annual Junior Rugby Tournament a success
By Tom Purvis (13), From Bahama islandsinfo
Over 230 rugby players, coaches and parents travelled over for the tournament – players line up for the first day meeting and offical welcome by the Ministry of Tourism.FREEPORT, Grand Bahama — Last weekend, the Freeport Rugby Club held their 3rd Annual Junior Rugby International Tournament. It was a great success.
Arriving in The Bahamas were teams from The Cayman Islands and America to play the great game of rugby. The teams all showed great sportsmanship and it was obvious they all enjoyed themselves a lot. There were teams from under nine to sixteen years old.
On Friday night there was a welcome pizza party. 80 pizzas were delivered to the club, which was good as while eating the kids all got to get to know one and another. When the coaches and teams arrived they ran onto the pitch and all of a sudden the field was filled with young rugby players. It was really cool to see so many people there playing on the field and just having fun.
On Saturday there were games all day. They all started on time and the organizers did a great job of sticking to the planned schedule getting all the games finished by 5pm so we could then all watch an exhibition game played by The Golden Oldies, teams made up of men over 35 years of age.
Referees from Bahamas, Cayman and Florida line up before the game starts at the club along with Nigel Kirkby, Director of the Jr. Int. Tournament (3rd from left). The Golden Oldies result was a shock to everyone watching as Key Biscayne thrashed the combined Cayman Bahamas team. Most people did not realize that the Key Biscayne team had players who were ex-Argentinian National players. It was exciting to watch but clear to see that they had so much more experience and must of practiced all the time as they outclassed the opposition.
The Bahamas Junior teams played really well. They were very quick on the break and showed a lot of natural talent. They had obviously been working hard on their organisation but they still need to develop their passing and tackling skills to match the other teams.
I was surprised, yet pleased, to see two girls playing for Cayman but when they got out on the pitch that they could hold their own and played really well and also tackled extremely well. The coaches told me that in fact ladies rugby is growing around the world and is very entertaining to watch.
The Bahamas under eleven team take on the Cayman team. On Sunday there was a Barbarian style competition for the Under 13’s where all the three countries joined together to produce four teams who played each other. The final scores on this day were ignored because it was no longer a competition against countries but purely for the love of the game.
This weekend was brilliant. The parents from Key Biscayne and Cayman should be congratulated for making the effort to come up to Freeport and for helping put on such a great tournament, without them we would not of had a one. It was also great to see so many people from Freeport come out and support the club and teams.
Many of the travelling teams said that it was a fantastic weekend and they would be definitely coming back next year.
Even though I don’t play but I still had a great weekend and enjoyed mixing with new people. Well done Freeport Rugby Club!
Young Hugo Alnebeck prepares to pass the ball during the 2-days of rugby games at the Freeport Rugby Football Club.The results for the games are as follows:
Under 9’s – Key Biscayne won with two wins. First Key Biscayne, Second Freeport, Third Cayman.
Under 11’s – Key Biscayne won with two wins. First Key Biscayne, Second Freeport, Third Cayman.
Under 13’s – There were two teams from Cayman, their first team won with three wins. First Cayman 1, Second Freeport and Key Biscayne, Third Cayman 2.
Under 15’s – There were two teams from Freeport. Their first team won with two wins. First Freeport 1, Second Cayman and Key Biscayne, Third Freeport 2.
(Photos courtesy Alex Cafferata)
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