(CRFU): The Cayman Islands international Rugby season kicks off on May 4 when the Cayman National Men’s team travels to Atlanta, Georgia USA to take on USA Rugby South in the North America Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Championships. USA Rugby South is the territorial union for teams playing in the Southern United States which represents the USA in the NACRA tournaments. It is one of seven unions that govern specific regions of USA Rugby and is comprised of the North Carolina Rugby Football Union, the Georgia Rugby Union, the Palmetto Rugby Union, the Deep South Rugby Football Union, the Florida Rugby Football Union and the MidSouth Rugby Football Union.

Cayman has had some success against their American counterparts in the past having beaten the USA South Men’s VII’s team in Barbados 19-14 on November 12, 2011 and again at under 21 men’s XV’s level on home turf 16-15 on January 2, 2012. But the task ahead will be one of the biggest that the Cayman Rugby Union has faced in recent times.

USA South are enjoying a rich vein of form having beaten Mexico 50-23, Jamaica 29-12 and most recently the Bahamas 42-15 and with home field advantage the Cayman Men’s team know they are looking down the barrel against the American’s but the Cayman team have had a successful warm up to the full international season with warm up games against Princeton University, the Griffins from Allen, Texas (Texas State Rugby Champions 2013) and most recently against the Bay Street Pigs from Toronto (Toronto Rugby Union Champions 2010, 2011 & 2012).

National Men’s XV’s Head Coach Brad Cowdroy, in announcing the squad which will travel to Atlanta for the May 4 clash added, “All (warm up games) have proved formidable opponents and excellent preparation for our upcoming games. Similar to last year, we are fortunate to have a larger squad than normal to select our travelling 22 players from. Training has been excellent and well attended and coupled with the efforts in each warm up game, has made selecting the travelling 22 very difficult. As such, our performance in our upcoming games will not just be a reflection of the match day 22 but of the training squad at large.

“The USA South game will undoubtedly be our toughest assignment so far but I know all the players will be up for the challenge and are really keen to get our 2013 campaign off to a successful and winning start.”

See attachment for squad list