The Trinidad and Tobago national rugby team will clash with USA Rugby South in the final of the 2013 North American and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Rugby XVs Championship, at Fatima College grounds, from three p.m. tomorrow. The two teams earned the right to meet when they won their respective groups.
USA Rugby South won the NACRA north title by defeating 2012 champions Bermuda and the Cayman Islands in round 2. Trinidad and Tobago won the south title by defeating Barbados and Guyana in round 2 of their group.
The Calypso Warriors (T&T) last held the title of Caribbean champions when they won the tournament in 2008. At that time, USA Rugby South were not in the competition.
The new home and away format was introduced in 2011, and Bermuda emerged victorious. They repeated in 2012, which was a Rugby World Cup 2014 qualifier year.
“The Trinidad and Tobago Team has been hard at work following the Guyana match,” said manager Curtis Nero.
“Everyone involved recognises the significance of the event and what it could mean to the further development of the sport in this country. We have a date with destiny.”
T&T squad
John Hill, Rowell Gordon, Wayne Kelly,
Joseph Quashie, Tariq Cheekes (Harvard);
Felician Guerra, Kelson Figaro, James Phillip, Trizine Mc Clean, Kereem Figaro (Royalians); Gordon Dalgleish, Adam Frederick (capt), Jonathan O’Connor (Northern); Jessie
Richards (UWI); Graeme Alkins, Anthony Lopez, Ernest Wright, Miguel Lara, Jamal Clark, Andrew Taylor (Caribs); Kwain
Manswell, Keishon Walker (Tobago)
Officials: Larry Mendez (coach) Dale Trotman (assistant coach), Stuart Harrison (assistant coach), Curtis Nero (manager)