(CRFU): As 2010 quickly draws to a close and the Island edges ever closer to the much anticipated 2011 15’s season, the Cayman Rugby Union is hosting the Heineken 7’s tournament every Saturday in October. Local 7’s games (as will all local rugby games) are now drawing international interest thanks to live and free internet streaming on www.caymanrugbytv.com with knowledgeable and humorous game commentary from CRFU president Derek Haines. The Heineken 7’s series is as always split into 2 divisions (Premier & Social) with the premier division hotly contested by the O’Neill Wolfhounds, The Ama Tsotsi (fielding an all South African contingent of players) and the Heineken Thunder. The Heineken Thunder is a new addition to the 7’s series in lieu of no national 7’s squad being fielded this year.
The larger (in more ways that one) social division is fielding 4 teams this year with the Omni Remax Knackers, Maples, the Heineken Clydesdale Lights and the Omni Sharks.
WEEK 1 Week 1 of the 7’s kicked off on October 2nd thanks to a break in the rain long enough to give the South Sound Rugby pitch time to drain and both divisions were evenly matched on the field. In the Social division the Omni Remax Knackers, the Clydesdales and Maples all shared 1 win a piece whilst the Omni Sharks, a team made up solely from the Cayman National U19’s squad running out unscathed thanks to superior speed and fitness.
The Premier Division was also a close affair if only for the Ama Tsotsi and the Heineken Thunder as both teams made little work of the O’Neill Wolfhounds. The Wolfhounds, a strong team on paper could not find their stride against either of their opponents and were beaten convincingly in both their encounters of the day. The decider of the division between the Ama Tsotsi and the Thunder was an affair to be decided off the pitch sadly! The game ended a 10-10 draw thanks in no small part to the efforts of the Thunder “go to” player Ratu Nemesio Wakanibua putting the lions share of his teams points on the board throughout the day but his efforts were outshone by the eagle eyes ofMark Woollard, team manager of the Thunder who spotted that during play the Ama Tsotsi had fielded an ineligible player in John Murphy of the Wolfhounds and as a result forfeited the game.
WEEK 2: With rain still threatening to affect play the rugby gods brought out the sunshine once more on Saturday 9 October to see some more hard-hitting, if not always fast paced rugby action.
In the Social Division the Heineken Clydesdale Lights slumped to 3 straight defeats to quicker opposition. It was yet again the Omni Sharks who were to shine in the division as they made it 6 wins in 2 weeks over all their opponents even if the best efforts of the Clydesdales to bully the younger players into submission with a 15’s style pick n’ go style of play didn’t work. Maples were triumphant over the Knackers to take 2 place in the division.
In the Premier division the Wolfhounds put in a much improved performance with the inclusion of former Cayman 7’s national captain Johnny Doak but were still unable to undo The Ama Tsotsi or the Ratu Show.
Once again eyes were keenly fixed on the match up between the Ama Tsotsi and the Heineken Thunder and with the inclusion of Etienne Duverage the Ama Tsotsi were fancied to undo the deadlock which they found themselves in only the week previous and the Ama Tsotsi took the match 14-12 with only a single conversion being the difference between the teams.
With light fading the Premier division held a final game which was missed in week 1 and looked to be going all the Ama Tsotsi’s way having taken a 10-0 lead in the first half but with Camillo Andres yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on Phil Coley of the Thunder the opening for Ratu to put points on the board was there once more and the Ama Totsi lead soon disappeared. The game ended early due to bad light with the final score 10-10
With 3 weekends of play still to go anything could happen in either division.
