Cayman gears up for Jamaica clash

(CRFU): Looking ahead to the 16 April NACRA Caribbean Championship Round 1 home game against. Jamaica, Cayman Rugby Football Union’s National Coach, Brad Cowdroy, said that since they were facing a relatively unknown team, it would be hard to plan for on the rugby pitch. The coach said he was expecting the Jamaican team to play their typical quick game, relying on their raw talent and speed to score tries, but that the Cayman team would try to reduce our errors to as close to nil as possible. The Cayman vs. Jamaica match will take place at the Cayman Rugby Football Club 16 April, 4pm kick off. (Photo National Coach Brad Cowdroy)

Q. Is your squad now finalised? A. The squad isn’t 100% finalised yet but I’ve got a pretty good idea who our starting XV will be: Ben McDonald, JS de Jager, Peter de Vere, Dan Bond, Doug Anderson, Craig Morgan, Josh Clarke, Ben Blair, Simon Crompton, Sam Sage, Keswick Wright, Joel Clarke, Michael Wilson, Dow Travers and Robbie Cribb.

As the squad is comprised of both players living on Island as well those away at University in the USA and UK, it has been impossible to apply the same selection parameters to both groups. In fact we will only be able to have one training session where all squad members are present. This presents numerous challenges for selection as we now have more capable and available squad members than ever before, but at the end of the day, it is a good problem to have. For those living on Island, the players were selected based on form in the local AA Cup as well as trainingattendance and performance. For those living off Island, we needed to ensure they were playing regular rugby at a good standard and generally keeping fit.

Q. What are you expecting from the Jamaican team? A. Jamaican is almost always a relatively unknown quantity on the rugby pitch which makes them hard to plan against. I would expect them to play their typical quick game, pouncing on any errors or scraps that we offer. They usually play a less structured game than we do and rely on their raw talent and speed to score tries. We will of course try to reduce our errors to as close to nil as possible.

Q. With that in mind have you been focussing on anything specific? A. Mainly on getting our set piece right at scrum and line-out time as we regard this as a strength of ours. We have also worked hard on our defensive patterns that will hopefully nullify any attack that Jamaica throws at us. Whilst we have focused on our set piece and forward play, we also have a number of our own fast backs and we will look to get the ball to them when the space opens up and play with flair and pace ourselves.

Q. Lastly, with all the young talent named on the squad are there any particular players to watch? A. We have a number of players coming back from University overseas to join the squad. All of them have gone through the local junior program and it is fantastic that we now have so many home grown players in our senior men’s squad. I am very much looking forward to watching them play with those few years of experience away now under their belt.

Live audio feed of game on www.caymanrugbytv.com from 4pm with full highlights package, including videos later in the weekend.