By Riaan Marais From Herald Live

Brown can’t wait to take to field in Hong Kong

ONE of Port Elizabeth’s sons will add some South African flavour to Caribbean rugby when the Cayman Islands national team travels to Hong Kong next month for the Rugby Sevens Invitational tournament.

Following their success at the annual North American Caribbean Rugby Association’s tournament last year, and an appearance at the Las Vegas Rugby Sevens earlier this month, Cayman Islands qualified for the Hong Kong event.

And team member Josh Brown, 30, of Port Elizabeth, cannot wait to play in front of a potential 45 000-strong crowd.

“Vegas was an awesome experience for us as we played some really good opposition and learnt a lot that helped us with our preparations for Hong Kong,” Brown said.

“However, I’m not sure anything can prepare us for when we run out onto the field in Hong Kong with 45 000 people in the stands!”

The former Grey High School pupil went to the Cayman Islands for the first time in 2004 and now manages a popular restaurant on Seven Mile Beach.

He started his rugby career as a youngster at Grey, and while he never made his school’s first team, he has been part of the Cayman Islands’ 15-man national rugby setup since 2009, and is now playing his second season of sevens rugby.

Cayman coach and former Blitzbok Jovan Bowles is another South African to form part of the Cayman rugby setup.

The team is a melting pot of nationalities and cultures, with players from the Caymans, Scotland and Jamaica making up the squad, giving them “quite a mix of boys” participating under the Cayman Islands’ flag.

IMAGE: Josh Brown

For more on this story go to: http://www.heraldlive.co.za/pe-man-play-caymans-sevens-event/