– ‘Mighty Jaguars’ confident on their return to 2011 U.S.A. Sevens Rugby tourney
By Kiev Chesney
Guyana will be without star winger Kevin Mackenzie (L) for the USA sevens. Mackenzie was the MVP of the NACRA Championships which were held in Guyana last July
“It’s the times when our backs are against the wall that we come out swinging; so, generally, I think that we will be able to give a solid team performance.”
Guyana’s national rugby sevens side, ‘the Mighty Jaguars’ will be returning to the HSBC 2011 USA Sevens in Las Vegas next month; and despite their unfavourable odds, coach and senior player Theodore Henry is confident that the team will rise above the mountains of adversity that they presently face.
Henry expressed those sentiments exclusively with Guyana Times International Sport yesterday as his team prepared to participate in one of the most hyped-up stops of the International Rugby Board’s (IRB) Sevens World Series, which begins in a month’s time.
The team lost three of its key players — Kevin Mackenzie, Albert La Rose and Dwayne Schroeder — late last year to suspension, for misconduct at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India. La Rose is currently serving a two-year ban, while Mackenzie was slapped with one year and Schroeder nine months by the Guyana Rugby Football Union (GRFU).
La Rose had been a member of the Rugby West Indies (RWI) team and competed at the U.S.A. Sevens for four consecutive years; and he enhanced that honour he represented Guyana in their debut at the competition last year. Mackenzie, who also competed for both Guyana and RWI, scored three tries, including the game’s winning try in extra time in the finals of the North America and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Caribbean championships at the National Stadium last year. That crucial victory qualified Guyana to return to U.S.A. Sevens again this year, as well as play in the Inaugural Pan American Games Rugby tournament later this year.
Schroeder’s speed and offensive aggression contributed in making him one of the leading try scorers in the NACRA and Central American and Caribbean Sport Organization (CACSO) tournaments in Guyana last year.
“The Show must go on”
From a coach’s perspective, Henry said, all three players will be missed tremendously, but “the show must go on”. The trio’s absence had temporarily affected the team’s morale, according to Henry, but it seems like the other team members have eventually adjusted to the situation.
“All of us on the team are friends, not just teammates; so when something happens to one person, it happens to all of us. But the team is now jelling and trying to regroup to get back to the focus at hand,” Henry said.
Player/coach Theodore Henry
The 31-year-old Henry said that the team will have to change some of their strategies from aggressive to tactical, since Mackenzie’s hard running, good tackling and general aggression was a significant part of their attack.
Added to their setbacks, the Mighty Jaguars will have just about two weeks to adjust to the methods of new technical director Spencer Robinson, who was recently appointed to replace RWI coach Joe Whipple, Guyana’s former technical director. Robinson is expected to join the team at the end of this month. The U.S.A. Sevens will take place on February 12 and 13. Robinson was Guyana’s technical director in 2005.
Henry said that he is currently included in the team that played for Robinson before, and should know what to expect from him.
Last year’s tournament was won by Samoa, while Guyana did not manage to win any of their games.
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