Written by Richard Adams
- Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 June 2009 16:11
The Cayman National Women's Rugby team made it through strongly to the final of the Caribbean Championships in Barbados, only to be beaten by an impressive Trinidad and Tobago team.
Match scores and reports from these NAWIRA (North America West Indies Rugby Association) Women's Championships were as follows:
| Game 1 |
Cayman |
54 - 3 |
Barbados |
| Game 2 |
Cayman |
76 - 0 |
St Vincent & Grenadines |
| THE FINAL: |
Cayman |
0 - 48 |
Trinidad & Tobago |
CARIBBEAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL:
Cayman 0 - 48 Trinidad & Tobago
The Trinidad & Tobago vs. Cayman Islands was the most anticipated game of the week for players, coaches and spectators alike. With the Caribbean Championships at stake all the players put their bodies on the line from start to finish. The first 20 minutes saw the twice & current champions Trinidad play rugby hard and fast with no let up to the intensity seeing Trinidad match Cayman at every breakdown and play. The toughness of the game became apparent early on with Jane Robson suffering a broken nose in the first ruck and this set the tone for the rest of the game to come. Trinidad were at times almost above the law and seemed almost free to spoil and steel any precious ball Cayman could lay their hands on.
A few early line breaks by Trinidad got the Cayman defense scrambling and it took Trinidad 20min for the defending champions to get on the board. Cayman showed their dominance in the scrum and lineout situation thanks to power and drive of Anne Story, Krista Pell and Cindy Blekaitis however with Cayman unable to build up any good second and third phase ball Trinidad became more and more confident in the broken play and were able to score 2 more tries before half time.
With the score at 17-0 at half time, and the two teams looking evenly matched the game was still there for the taking for either side and some ferocious tackling from Joe Ziegler and Jane Robson saw the top scoring Trinidad center being forced off with a knee injury early on. Trinidad’s fitness, size and clear advantage at the rucks would be Caymans ultimate downfall which allowed the creative playmakers from the Trinidad side to throw everything at Cayman and slowly wear the defense down.
The final score being 48-0 not really reflecting the closeness of the game as Cayman showed unbelievable talent, bravery and heart. Some more consistent refereeing around Caymans strengths such as scrums, rucks and mauls would have seen the score much closer around the 22-10 mark however even such it would still have gone Trinidad’s way. The Trinidadians youth, size, pace and experience simply gave them the edge needed.
Ultimately the better team on the day won however the Cayman women’s’ team have left the tour with their heads held high and definitely leaving the rest of the Caribbean teams with some seriously battered bodies and wary of what there is to come in the future.
MATCH REPORT - Cayman 76 - 0 St Vincent & Grenadines
Once again an excellent performance by the Cayman team with the forwards totally dominating up front and some brilliant individual play by the backline seeing Cayman through to their final game on Saturday against the favorites Trinidad & Tobago. Cayman ran in seventeen tries in total to secure their second successive win in the 2009 championships.
The game started with high anticipation that Cayman would simply run over the St. Vincent team, however some early mistakes and miscommunication saw Cayman only leading by 10-0 twenty minutes into the game.
St. Vincent making an early run with the ball from their try line and breaking through Cayman’s defense seemed to wake up the team and put them into top gear with a brilliant try saving tackle by Lisa Bird on the Cayman halfway line preventing St Vincent from putting any points on the Board.
Some strong 50 yard breaks by centre Olive MacDonagh were only just stopped as St Vincent scrambled on defense denying Cayman who were unable to round off and score more points.
The first half had plenty of try scoring opportunities squandered but with some re focus the team seemed to dug deep and managed to pile on the points leaving the half time score at 32-0.
The second half Cayman played downwind and seemed to be a different team on the pitch as they mounted the pressure and it was one way traffic for Cayman who stepped back into their game plan with St. Vincent having no answer to the onslaught by both forwards and backs.
The try of the game had to be from newcomer Latoya Bariffe on the left wing, she received the ball at pace on the halfway line and performed a classic inside out with a handoff to see her sprint down the line for a 50m try in the corner. The try was converted by Loletta Hanna showing that Cayman has new found all rounded talent and skills to reckon with.
Player of the match went to fly half Lisa Kehoe who put in an unbelievable all rounded performance on both defense and attack also leaving her with 2 well deserved tries.
Tries: Olive Macdonagh (1), Jane Robson (1), Lisa Kehoe (2), Loletta Hanna (2), Krista Pell (2), Karen Hart (3), Joe Ziegler (1), Jess Lane (1), Latoya Bariffe (1)
Conversions: Loletta Hanna (2)
MATCH REPORT - Cayman Islands 54 - 3 Barbados
Cayman received the kickoff and with the forwards driving it up field almost 35 meters it became apparent early in the game that Cayman was going to be a team to reckon with. From the first scrum of the game Cayman started with a classic number 8 pickup from Jess Lane advancing forward, this was followed by some brilliant support from the likes of Jane Robson and Joe Ziegler to retain the ball, the tight five then drove up the side line setting up a quick ball for the backs who with great hands set Olive MacDonagh over the line within the first 4 min of the game. The conversion was successful.
The kickoff, received by Cayman was knocked on giving the ball to Barbados . A brilliant tight head scrum from Cayman gave Cayman a classical 8,9,11 on the blindside with the captain Rowena Lawrence drawing the wing and setting away Loletta Hanna at speed for a great handoff and a clean pair of heels to the try line.
From the following kickoff Barbados applied strong pressure and after Cayman spent a good 3 minutes defending their line Barbados received a penalty right in front of the posts. Realizing they weren't going to break the Cayman defensive line Barbados opted for a penalty leaving the score at 12-3 fifteen minutes into the game.
Cayman again pressured well after the kickoff which left Barbados on their try line trying to swing the ball wide to their speedsters but strong tackling allowed Olive MacDonagh to intercept the ball and take the score to 19-3 after the conversion.
Cayman continued with the pressure attack and when they won a Barbados scrum ten meters from the Barbados goal line Number 8 Lane picked and scored. This was followed in the last fifteen minutes of the half by tries from Hart, Kehoe and MacDonagh to see the first half over at a score of 34 to 3.
Lisa Bird opened the second half with a try after the ball was firstly turned over by the Cayman forwards. This was followed by a second try from Lane which followed solid lineout ball and drives from the forwards. From a penalty awarded against Barbados, Lane tapped quickly and went in.
Barbados not to be denied came back into the game for the next fifteen minutes but Cayman also stepped up to the plate and refused to let Barbados get any of the upper hand.
Fly half Kehoe managed to get onto a turn over ball on the Barbados 22 meter and managed to scamper over for a second try after a great period of pressure from the Cayman players.With twenty minutes to go and the game in control the coaches emptied the benches and Annie Rankine had some excellent runs before Lawrence scored the final try bringing the result to 54 – 3.
A special mention to newcomers to the squad in Kadie-Ann Webb, Ann-Marie Douglas and Latoya Bariffe added some spark and showed that Cayman has a big future in rugby considering they've all only been playing for 3months. Overall Cayman has shown immense improvement in both defense and overall skills and a definite game plan and cool heads under pressure is sure to make this team a strong contender for the Caribbean Championship title
Tries: Olive MacDonagh (3)Loletta Hanna (1)Jess Lane (2)Karen Hart (1)Lisa Bird (1)Lisa Kehoe (1)Rowena Lawrence (1)
Conversions: Olive MacDonagh (2)
Rugby
