This past weekend, the Trinidad & Tobago Senior Men’s National Rugby 15s Team secured an emphatic 26-3 victory over Guyana, in their return fixture in the 2024 Rugby Americas North (RAN) Senior Men’s 15s Championship match held in Guyana.
In the first leg, Guyana closely edged out T&T 24-23, thanks to a hattrick of tries from prop, Rondell McArthur and a game winning tackle by the winger, Godfrey Pollydore to deny Jonathan Taylor the go ahead score at the Hasley Crawford Stadium, much to the dismay of the local supporters.
But the Trinidad & Tobago National Team returned the favour and silenced the crowd in Georgetown. Head Coach, Dale Trotman made a few changes to the team as well as changing some tactics, which in the end made the difference as the team who lost in April earlier this year, made a complete turn around for the better.
The local team got the first points of the game with an early conversion in the 7th minute by Godfrey Broomes and that was all the ‘Green Machine’ could have mustered. The game was then controlled by flyhalf, Ruairi O’Farrell. His tactical kicking kept the Guyanese defence at bay until close to end of the first half, when Nathaniel Cadiz sprinted in for his 5 pointer for his country and put T&T in at the break, leading 5-3.
The second half was pretty much the same as the first as the kicking game proved too much for the Guyanese defence to handle, then it was the Anderson Joseph show. The Caribs RFC Captain, showed his pedigree as he seemed unstoppable from close range, going over the line in the 52nd, 62nd and 81st minute for a second half hattrick, on a somewhat heavy running surface at the Guyana Defence Force Grounds in Camp Ayanganna. Second half substitute, Christopher Hudson, slotted home 2 penalty kicks at the end before the Mexican Referee, Fernando Garcia, put a halt to proceedings after 80 minutes.
The final score was Trinidad & Tobago 26; Guyana 3.
Trinidad & Tobago Senior Men’s National Rugby 15s Team
