Women's Rugby 2008

Match report Cayman V Jamaica international friendly.

On a rain soaked pitch, starting 45 minutes late, the Cayman V Jamaica Women's international friendly rugby match finally got underway in Kingston Jamaica on Saturday June 14th.  

The new look Cayman team contained several new players from those that travelled to Guyana based on who was available to travel.  With several of the veteran Guyana players unable to travel for the match it was a great opportunity for new players on the team to show what they could do at this level. Coach Rogers also had a few women playing their first ever match and as such allowed every player from his twenty one player squad to participate in order to gain valuable experience on the pitch. It was a brave move against a team that Cayman had lost 12 - 7 to in the Caribbean Championships in May. Ultimately however it will lead to Coach Rogers being able to select his strongest squad, from a larger group of players who have performed at this level, something to date he has not been able to do.  

Conditions were very heavy and the humidity was exhausting for both teams. The Cayman scrummage immediately took control of the set piece driving the Jamaican scrummage mercilessly on the wet and soaked terrain, while the three quarters tackled well for the opening ten minutes. The Jamaican team looked to use their speed to good advantage moving the ball wide with accuracy and skill at every given opportunity while the Cayman girls sought to deny them this possession by smashing relentlessley into every Ruck and tackle whether the ball was held by them or the opposition. It was a fantastic spectacle of two very different styles trying to outplay each other in very poor conditions and kept the crowd entertained for the opening stanza.   As Cayman exerted more pressure at the set piece, tackle and ruck situations the penalty count against Jamaica started to rise and Cayman kicked the ball repeatedly to touch to gain ground and the feed to the line out. Shortly after the 12 minute mark the referee made what can only be called a remarkable decision to depower the scrummage to a 'no push' contest - his reason, to save the pitch from being cut up. This immediately hamstrung the Cayman team's game plan and played directly into the hands of the Jamaican team who were very happy to conserve their energy that was being used defending their scrummage and allow them to use it covering the pitch. Simply put the game swung heavily into Jamaica's favor after this point. Shortly after Jamaica scored the first try of the game using the width of the field well. The Cayman team team continued to pressure and control the majority of posession and territory but were unable to break some excellent Jamaica defense. The half finished Jamaica 5 Cayman 0.  

At half time Cayman tried to change tactics to a pick and drive game that might have allowed them to tie in the Jamaican forwards a little more and stop them from spreading the pitch as well as to keep the ball in Cayman's hands. This change in tactic was highly sucessfull with Cayman spending almost thirty minutes inside the Jamaica half and launching assault after assualt on the Jamaican defense. The Jamaicans held out well tackling with ferocity and when Cayman's chances finally started to come some 17 minutes from time they twice made unforced errors and the opportuinities eluded them. The Jamaican team was being forced to give away penalty after penalty and with the count somewhere in the region of 22 penalties conceeded by Jamaica and six by Cayman everyone in the ground was wondering if the referee had perhaps forgotten his cards before the match. He proved all wrong when finally he yellow carded the Jamaica number 4 with less than ten to go in the game for dangerous tackling. Again it was all too little to late as Jamaica had effectively killed many opportunities Cayman had created by being off side, putting hands into the ruck or tackling high. The Jamaica team had played the referee far better than Cayman and in the last ten minutes of the match they again managed to break away with a solid series of inter passes and support play for their second try. The closing insult to Cayman was when the referee penalised Jamaica for a knock on at the Cayman 22 meter line and then, just as in Guyana, awarded Jamaica the scrum feed. They immediately scored their third try as a direct result of this error and the game was sealed and ended Jamaica 15 and Cayman 0.  

The Cayman team had once again performed well with all of the players fitting in well from the veterans to the first timers so the future looks bright. The game highlighted several areas that need to be addressed and worked upon but the elusive win is getting closer with each game and as the squad grows anticipation is high.

Ladies Fired up for Jamaica

It was only one month ago that our ladies National Rugby Team returned battered and bruised from a baptism of fire in Guyana at the Caribbean Championships and yet our Ladies are off overseas again... this time to Jamaica for another crack at the whip against the Jamaican team on 14 June 2008.

22 players, 2 Coaches and 6 Supporters will travel to Jamaica on the Saturday and play Jamaica that afternoon.

Unlike the trip to Guyana this tour doesn’t have the stringent IRB rules attached for determining who can play for the Cayman team, and whilst tours like this are often called ‘Social Tours’ it’s quite clear the ladies intentions are anything but social!

The Ladies plight in the Caribbean Champs against the Guyanese and the Trini’s were very much one sided battles but the Caymanians seemed more evenly matched against the Jamaicans, and were it not for some bizarre refereeing decisions our Ladies may have had more joy and against their bigger and often underhanded opposition.

Cayman lost to Jamaica on that occasion 12-7.

When questioned about the upcoming tour the newly appointed ladies Captain Rowena Lawrence was outspoken ahead of her teams visit to our neighbours. Lawrence, who was ineligible for the tour to Guyana has been chomping at the bit for her first taste of international rugby for the Cayman Islands and says she’s “truly honoured” that she’ll get to do so from the helm of a group of enthusiastic players.

Lawrence, an Attorney with local law firm Turner & Roulstone, missed out on the trip to Guyana because she had not reached the IRB’s required 3 years resident on Island. Lawrence was “absolutely gutted’” when she found out that she couldn’t go, she “had trained hard and even found the time to put in extra training sessions with the Men’s team”. Her desire was so strong to play for the team and her love and respect for the Islands so deep that she even put in a Caymanian Status application!

Ahead of the trip to Jamaica Lawrence feels that the she and her team are ready, “We’ve been training hard; we’ve been focusing a lot on fitness especially with a ‘Navy SEALS’ session after training every week.  Also, and no discredited to the ladies who went to Guyana but on this trip we’ll be taking the very best players possible with no worries about IRB requirements. The likes of Joan Murphy, Jo Woods and Cara Hennessey will be a boost to the team, and hopefully Cindy Blekatis will recover from her rib injury in time for the trip”.

When asked about the accusations that the Jamaicans used dirty tactics to put the Caymanians off their game in Guyana Lawrence said “Yeah, stories came flooding back from Guyana about pinching, punching, biting and even spitting... the players told the referee but nothing happened as a result... you’d think that with a referee and two line judges this kind of behaviour would be obvious! If it happens again we won’t lower ourselves to their level but we’re hoping with have more competent officials this time round.”

As a final thought Lawrence added “I’m desperate to get this team to win in Jamaica, with a win under our belt I know we’ll start to enjoy the game more and everyone will feel vindicated about all the effort that has been put into our game over the last year!”

Round Up of Carib Champs.

All in all it was a great sucess and a great learning experience for the women, the coaches and the management staff regarding the level, fitness, attrition and standard of Caribbean women's rugby and where awe stand and what we have to do in order to improve.

The fact that we had a dominant scrum and line out against all three teams is pleasing as we can continue to improve both aspects of our game quickly and over time will become more of a powerhouse in these regards.

We need to work on our line out throw, options and drives.

Our counter rucking and rucking were also very strong and the best in the tournament.

Our Maul showed signs of being very usefull and our forward running lines were good making the gain line on most occaisions.

Defence around the forwards was also very good with all but 1 try being scored out wide.

We need to develop the pick and go game for when we are close to the oppositions goal line.

In the backs we tackled well from first phase and ran well with the ball in hand.

We were able to make the gain line through the inside center very well.

We lack all around speed and our tackling needs to be improved individually and as a unit.

Our kicking game needs lots of work and our pursuit of kicks also.

We need to work on a goal kicker having to kick for touch or run some 23 kickable penalties in the three matches.

Handling speed, running speed, timing and accuracy of the backs also need to improve if we are to be able to challenge our Caribbean counterparts.

With all this said we are not far off the mark despite a couple of the scores.

Game 3 V Trinidad.

The team finished with a dissapointing loss to Trinidad and Tobago 79 - 0 which did not reflect the progress made during the week, but rather the fatigue of the team at the end of the tournament. Starting with only sixteen players in the squad for the last game Cayman managed to keep the scores level for the first quarter but when Trinidad stepped it up a level the disorganisation of the Cayman team was obvious. Having lost Jenna Gaio, Gill Comins and  Jane Robson on Thursday who had to return home for work and family, the re organisation was very difficult. Chandra Friesen stepped into scrum half and did well having to move to the wing in the second half when Jo Ziegler was moved to scrum half to try and solidify the back of the pack. Sumari Naude, Anne Storie, Cindy Blekatis and Caroline Deegan all worked steadfastly in the front five in the first half along with Amanda McField. Eileen McLaughlin stepped in to the hook in the second half and Deegan moved to lock with Zieglar moving to scrum half. The back row of Stagherlin, Ziegler, Lane and Cox worked hard but the cracks started to appear with missed tackles in the last 60 minutes. Kehoe, Hart, Hanna, Davies, MacDonagh and Friesen faced a veritable barrage of strong, fast and agile runners and twenty minutes in the tackles started to slide off as Trinidad found their way to the try line with some excellent handling, fantastic support and strong fast running lines. They were simply put too good in the last sixty minutes for a tired and weary Cayman team.

Game 2 V Jamaica

In 34 years I like to think that I have seen lots of Rugby action and had many memorable occaisions, today however, I was witness to I think, the biggest display of raw heart and pride that I have ever witnessed on a rugby pitch.

We went into this game against Jamaica on the back of a 41 - 0 nil defeat when we had actually played some of our best rugby as a team.

Jamaica are the reigning champions and while they had lost narrowly to Trinidad on Monday they are a formidable team. To prove the point they scored in the first six minutes with pure pace that left our girls almost standing. Unfortunately as it turns out the game was decided by one of the strangest refereeing decisions I have ever witnessed and I have witnessed a few! We cleared our line but failed to find touch, the Jamaican defender knocked the ball on trying to catch it and a player in front of her retrieved it. The referee awarded a scrummage at the knock on but gave the ball to Jamaica! Our back line was waiting to receive the ball, not defend and reacted way too late to the completely wrong refereeing decision and Jamaica scored and converetd from the scrumage.

So here we are fifteen minutes in and I am thinking ' this can turn into another long day if we are not carefull,' how wrong I was. From some deep dark hollow within, every players national pride ran deep and no way in hell or high water were we going to take two defeats so close together, the front five destroyed every scrummage with Jamaica only managing to win two scrummages from over 30 in the game, Cayman dominated the line out and ruck and Jamaica had no idea what to do except scramble and give away penalty after penalty in total over 40 penalties to just three conceeded by Cayman, yet no yellow card in sight?

10 minutes into the second half Olive MacDonagh picked up a fly hacked ball and ran like a ram through the Jamaican defence all the way to the line where she was head chopped, but still managed to ground the ball. The referee awarded a penalty try and Comins duly converted.

Jenna Gaio tackled relentlessly on the wing against Jamaica's biggest threat and removed her from the game as well as Friesen running her opposite number out of space. Lane ran well and Ziegler and Kareen were all over the ball at every breakdown. Comins and Kehoe linked well and Hanna made some telling tackles but the day belonged to the tight five, Blekatis, Deegan, Storie, Robson and Naude were simply outstanding any way you look at a game of rugby male or female. These players simply ground the opposition to nothing and while in the end we were unable to get that final score to take the game, the come back was something to see, something that renews your faith in what it is all about. Bettering your opposite number in any way you can. If only we could all remember that at times.

I feel renewed in a way I have not for many years and I thank these players....... they were truly inspiring.

Jamaica 12 Cayman 7.

Next Up Trinidad after they tied with Guyana 5 - 5 today but it is going to be an uphill battle as Robson, Gaio and Comins return home tomorrow, leaving only 16 players for the last game.

May 5 Game 1 V Guyana,

The ladies went down 41 - 0 to a very strong fast and well drilled Guyana team. The ladies conceded 27 points in the first half but came back much better in the second half only conceding 2 more tries one of which was a soft try from a penalty.

The scrummage and line out were very god and first up de fence was also good, Karen Hart, Jo Ziegler and Jess LAne all ran well, Olive MacDonagh was solid at full back and Lisa Kehoe distributed the ball well. Jenna Gaio closed down her wing the whole game but the Guyaneese 13 and 15 broke through tackles on occasion and given half a space simply disappeared from view to the try line with electric pace.

Next up  Trinidad on Wednesday who beat reigning champion Jamaica 12 - 10 today.

Training went very well this morning with the team looking very strong. Now resting before a light lunch and the game this afternoon.

Breakfast is at 8am this morning buffet style and that is followed by a last minute training session at 10am for the three girls that arrived late last night. Coach Ray made several changes to the teams defensive structures yesterday after consultation with the TD to try and close up the outside running lanes from set pieces and the session went well. The attacking part of the session will need more work this morning with the full squad. The team had a meeting yesterday evening where Ray where over the game plan with the players and the TD talked about pre match preparation and nerves etc. The team had dinner at 8pm while the management attended the coaches and players meeting. All were in bed by 10 pm with several of the players heading off before 9pm.

Today the team will depart for the international pitch at 2:30 with the Kick off time at 4pm against a well drilled and fast Guyana team that is expected to challenge the reigning champions of the past two championships Jamaica. To contact the team national women's team

Team to play Guyana 5/5/08

May 4

The women have arrived in Guyana and are currently resting in the Pegasus hotel after a long day of travel yesterday leaving Cayman at 7am and then stopping at Jamaica, St Marteens, Barbados, Trinidad and eventually Guyana arriving at the hotel early this morning. Training is at 2pm this afternoon and the girls will take on the home team Guyana tomorrow afternoon at 2pm at National Park.  Arriving today are thre more members of the squad Lisa Kehoe, Jane Robson and Jenna Gaio who will have a few short hours to recover the journet before tomorrows big game. You can contact the team at national women's team

May 2

The national women's team depart for Guyana on Saturday morning to represent Cayman for the first time in a Full IRB international tournament the Cribbean Championships 2008. Both the players and coach Ray Rogers have managed an outstanding performance in getting this team together and ready to play in the tournament. The competition will be very stiff as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana enjoy a strong tradition of women's rugby amd have participated in many women's Caribbean championships. For our girls much of this will be new although the tour earlier in the year and particularly the game against Tampa will stand them in good stead for what they will be up against in Guyana. This series of matches will set the benchmark for our women's program, it will define the training goals for all women's developmental programs on the island and show us exactly where we need to build in order to be able to compete at this level in the future. You can follow the results at 15s Match Schedule & Results

Squad: Caroline Deegan (Captain) Chandra Friesen, Cindy Blekatis, Gill Comins, Emily Davis, Joanne Ziegler, Karen Hart, Lisa Kehoe, Anne Storie, Shelly Cox, Sumari Naude, Olive MacDonagh, Lolita Hanna, Amanda McField, Eileen Scott, Kareen Godlington, Jessica Lane, Jane Robson & Jenna Gaio

The girls have four training sessions planned for this week before departing for Guyana on Saturday May 3rd to play in the Caribbean championships NAWIRA Women's 15s Match Schedule & Results where they will face Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Guyana in three internationals. Trainings are Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Friday of this week all at 5:30pm.

This will be the first time that Cayman will participate in the women's championships and we will be following their results very closely. You can follow all the action at NAWIRA Women's 15s Match Schedule & Results.

The women will play a warm up match prior to the start of the championships starting at 9:30 am on Sunday

In preparation for Guyana and the women's Caribbean championships the women played a warm up inter squad game on Saturday and overwhelemed their opposition scoring ten tries and looking very strong and well drilled. The line out and scrummages have certainly shown a vast improvement and the three quarter play and handling was also shown to have improved wholesale. The tackling was very strong and the defence in general is much improved from the Tampa and Orlando trips.

Women's ten a side league round 2 Results and standings.

Women's Sevens World Cup  qualifier dates announced October 25th and 26th Nassau Bahamas

Women's domestic sevens season to run in conjunction with the men in the Cable & Wireless Summer Series of sevens set for five teams playing over 5 weekends in preparation for the World Cup Women's sevens qualifiers. The National team will be selected from the best of the 5 teams over the five tournaments.

National women's sevens team training will commence Wednesday June 18th 5:30pm and will then run every Wednesday evening and Saturday Morning 9am and is open to all players.

National Women prepare for Guyana May 5th - 10th 2008

Training schedule

Monday 5:15 TOP DRAWER FINE LINGERIE WOMEN'S TOUCH LEAGUE

Wednesday 5:15 womens and U19 womens training. Contact CRFU Women for more info

Saturday 1pm - 2:30pm (as per schedule below) Women's 10 A Side league. Contact CRFU women

for more info

U19 Womens Training

Every Thursday at 4pm - 5:30pm everyone welcome.

2008 Women's fixtures.

Standings 2008

Top Points scorers 2008

2008 10's squad lists

2008 7's squad lists

The team arrived as the scaffold posts were being erected, in holes being freshly dug, the rope cross bars were being tied, the paint spray cans were being used to mark the outline's of a pitch, along one side of which had some lighting and the opposition were arriving in ones or two. The referee did not show and after an exhaustive search for a whistle coach Mays agreed to referee the game.

The match itself unlike the facility proved to be a great spectacle of women's rugby with the bigger, stronger and more experienced Tampa girls running north, south against the smaller nimbler Cayman girls who looked to try and get the ball around the corner. The Cayman women looked a little like deer in the headlights in the first few minutes of the game under the on rush of stampeding Tampa players and the tidal surge of Tampa defensive tackles that seemed to somehow always border on the illegally high side. It became apparent fairly quickly to the girls that it was 'get stuck in' or 'take a licking' time and to their credit the likes of Bird, Lawrence, Hart, captain Deegan, Cox and Murphy started to give back what had been coming their way. The rucking was ferocious from the get go and the stalemate of the two teams crashing like warring thunderclouds in the middle of the park continued un broken for some 20 minutes with neither side really making any headway at all. The attrition of the players was in evidence with a multitude of injuries to both teams and a number of stoppages. The ebb and flow of the contest was finally broken after a pass was dropped by the Tampa back line after a crushing tackle from Lawrence, a Tampa player got toe to boot and suddenly the Cayman pack were on their line defending for all their worth. Seven times the Tampa forwards drove at the line and seven times the Cayman girls drove them backwards in a heroic goal line stand that resembled a scene from the 300, on the eight attempt however the pile up moved across the line before the Cayman girls could get it into touch and somehow the referee deemed that the ball had been grounded and awarded the try.

Kehoe then started to take control of her back line and like a little Napoleon she orchestrated the Cayman attack with precision driving first loose forwards Murphy, Cox and Ziegler off her inside shoulder for straight crushing runs and then setting Hart and Lawrence away for some excellent center pairing runs. Naude, Robson, Storie, Blekatis and Deegan dutifully followed behind and cleaned out any Tampa players who dared to enter the tackle giving Wagner ample time to deliver to her three quarter line. Full back Friesen cleaned up any loose ball behind the backs. Cayman were simply out playing Tampa and with seconds left in the half it seemed that the illusive try would be scored in the left hand corner, the meandering side line however saved the moment for Tampa as the Cayman side were deemed to have stepped into the touch somewhere close to the line.

In the second half new comers Woods, Yi-Jing, Violini, Sampang, Warren, Hennessy, Bayliss, Taylor & Palmer all stepped into the frey at some point and equipped themselves well with Yi-Jing limping off the field with a dislocated inter costal cartilage and a few other battle scarred players needing to be replaced. The pace of the game did not slack at all and again and again the Cayman girls gave better than they received in the loose and attempted to get the ball down the back line to the wing's where they could press their advantage. Credit to Tampa who tackled for a forty minute period with resolve and tenacity and kept the Cayman ladies from the illusive score that they tried so hard to get. In the last twenty minutes as the light from the floodlight seemed to get dimmer, the sandy pitch and the sheer volume of colossal contact started to take it's effect on both sides and the game slowed to pitched battle between the titans up front. At times it resembled to days of old with bare knuckled fighters standing toe to toe, too tired to lift their fists to defend themselves but yet unwilling to take that final blow that would send them down and out for good, and so it was as Tampa were awarded a five meter penalty in front of the posts for not releasing that Cayman stood for it's last stand.

The ball was tapped and passed and the confrontation began, in the end it was a simple case of power and momentum and Tampa managed to break the Cayman line for the second time. This time it was converted and the final whistle sounded with the score 12 - 0.

In the aftermath of the occasion and on reflection it was a game Cayman could have won and will in the future with more game experience win out of sight. Last night the thinking side of the game got away from Cayman and we ended up mixing it up when we should have continued to go around, what the girls did prove however is that we have the ability to bow to no one and when the time comes to stand up and be counted, they will be ready, willing and able.

Game 2 V the Orlando select proved to be a completely different experience as firstly the facilities were much better, the opposition was there, warm and raring to go and at least three USA Women's Eagles squad were in the team as well as several USA Eagle hopefulls. In short the Cayman girls were completely outmatched for the first twenty minutes and conceeded 8 tries and 44 points. Remarkably the Cayman team dug in and only conceeded two more tries in the last twenty of the first half. So the half time score of 56 - 0 was an unsurmountable amount and winning the game very much out of sight. The coaching staff and players changed their focus and agreed that each player would attempt to do three things in the second half, tackle, communicate and look for players in better positions to receive the ball something every player could achieve and a goal that suited further development of the team rather than damage control with the score.

The second half immediately took on a new look as the Cayman girls stuck their tackles time and again, the powerfull Orlando girls suddenly discovered that where there had been holes before and soft contact their were now bodies committed to stopping them. The likes of Sampang, Whitmore, Ziegler and Murphy upped their work rate and became major factors in the second half with low driving tackles and strong runs with the ball in hand. Lawrence and Hart in the centers applied great pressure to the Orlando backs that had been so much trouble in the first half and all but shut them down while Kehoe probably the lightest girls on the whole field managed to dig up from somewhere deep within some of the best takles of the day on some of the Orlando biggest players! All of the girls managed to accomplish all three of the agreed goals and while Orlando did manage to score two more tries in the second half, it was Cayman who ended the game over the Orlando try line, unfortunately the referee decided that the Cayman girls had in fact been held up in goal and the try was dissallowed. Final score 68 - 0.

Wrapping up the tour it was two losses to nil. The first game Cayman could have won the second became an exersise in tenacity and proving some spirit. The women to a player proved that they can perform at these levels and looking ahead to the rest of the year the 10 a side league will produce some excellent rugby, give the girls a lot more game time and help with the everyday skills. The Champs in May and October will be tough for this inexperienced team but they are capable of turning a few surprises and with work will do well at both competitions.

The women's clubs of the Cayman RU welcome tours at any time. If you are interested in touring please click on Women's tours for more information.

Women's training is every Monday and Wednesday at the South Side Pitch from 5:15pm onwards. All women are welcome, experienced or not. To find out more information on the women's programs please contact David Mays at crfucoach@candw.ky

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