As the tournament progressed it was felt that Bermuda was building towards a grandstand finale. With 12 tries scored by nine different scorers and captain Shauntino Simons slotting over nine of his 12 conversion attempts, all in the space of the shortened U19 game of 70 minutes, this was really quite a display.
The Bermuda pack of forwards, who were magnificent all game, got the scoreboard ticking over as early as the fourth minute when the impressive Colin Campbell stole a lineout ball in the Guyana 22 and the ever popular Lubin Sousa rumbled over for the first try of the game.
Five minutes later Bermuda had doubled their lead when, off a sweetly executed four-man lineout, the ball was spun wide to full back Rory O’Kelly-Lynch who cut an acute angle back against the scrambling defence to score under the posts.
By the 18th minute Bermuda were nearly out of sight as Somers Brewin broke off a driving maul, passed to his captain Simons, who in turn passed to Bermuda’s Man of the Series, prop Nick Chilvers, who drew the remaining defenders before offloading to a grateful Olly Bassett who cantered in to score Bermuda’s third try.
There was no respite for the poor Guyana defence as within minutes they shipped three tries. First, Patrick Richardson powered over out wide for a try and then the one man battleship that is Bermuda’s Brynley Toms smashed his way over twice in the final minutes of the half from almost identical positions. His second try was all the more spectacular as he used his big forearm to literally bowl over two would be tacklers.
Needless to say his watching father, Teachers stalwart Brian Toms who was known for his physicality back in the day, was particularly proud of that little move.
Half time
At half time Guyana were 40 points down and things continued apace into the second half. This time it was the turn of Mariners stalwart John O’Kelly-Lynch to sit proudly in the stands as his son Rory scored his second try of the game. The full back had been cutting the Guyana team apart almost at will all afternoon and shortly afterwards, Bermuda’s star back was replaced in what many perceived as a mercy call from Bermuda’s gracious coaches.
Bassett then danced his way through a tired defence for his second of the game to bring up the 50 points and then Donald Folkard, who had just come on at full back, waltzed in from 50 yards out with his first touch of the game.
Guyana where now in complete disarray and Tom Bassett, followed by Andre Landy, added to the score-line in quick succession. It was then left to Mike Coles to score the final try of the game, supporting the strong running Landy, who looked set to score his second try, only for the ball to pop out of his grasp at the last minute into the fortunate hands of Coles who dived over. Simons slotted his ninth conversion and the ref blew for full time.
Afterward the jubilant yet philosophical coach of Bermuda, Herbie Adderley, was full of praise for his team.
"The boys did really well in the set pieces but lacked experience and fitness playing in this heat." And referring to the opening round defeat by beaten finalists Mexico he continued "With a more favourable draw we may have progressed further, I don’t think we are quite at the level of the top two teams, Cayman and Mexico, but we are definitely in the top 4 and with the nucleus of this team returning next year the outlook is very positive."

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T&T, ranked fifth, will take confidence from the victory over the side ranked one spot higher than them, but they should face a much tougher challenge against second-ranked Mexico, last year’s runners-up, who shut out debutants Bermuda 33-0.

Jamaica, ranked third and the 2007 winners, were impressive in a 34-9 thrashing of newcomers Bahamas, while hosts and defending champions Cayman Islands, the tournament favourites, had an opening day bye.

The competition continues today, with the Bahamas meeting Bermuda, while T&T and Mexico go at it from 3 p.m., and the home side face Jamaica at 4.30 p.m.

The Championship enters the semi-final stage tomorrow. The winners of the tournament will qualify for the 2010 IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy.

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“The sport was, at that point, in a fledgling stage, so while starting from scratch was not necessary, items like the GNAs constitution and their strategic plan needed to be reworked.”

As next steps Ms. Beckett stated that apart from those fundamental changes in organization, the GNA will attempt to organize tours of other Caribbean territories so as to gain greatly needed competition-level experience.

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Girl Power!!!

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