sep 27, 2012 - BVI Under 19s go to Barbados for 7s

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Coach Solo travelled to Barbados last weekend with the BVI's first competitive Under 19s team made up of the Islands finest young talent from Elmore Stoutt, Seventh Day, Cedar and the College. Whilst several players such as Melvyn Knight, Rory Thornton and Austin Keil had represented the senior men's team in matches for many of the players this was their first experience of international rugby.
The BVI played 3 games of Sevens rugby against three Barbados teams and this gave the boys a good chance to gauge where they were regionally.

In the first game against Barbados Yellow the BVI narrowly lost a frenetic encounter 15 - 12. The BVI got off to a poor start with nerves resulting in several handling errors and a well worked Bajan try. However as the first half drew to a close some tough BVI tackling led to a turn over and fly half Thornton put in young speedster Noel Maxwell for a cracking try as he side stepped two defenders to run in from 50 metres. In the second half human wrecking ball Kareem ‘Burger’ Etienne made some strong runs and bruising tackles and alongside Austin Keil ensured that the BVI would not be physically intimidated. A lapse in concentration let Barbados in for a soft try and the BVI rallied well with Maxwell once more running in from 50 metres to take the score back to 15-12. The BVI had a chance to win the game in the last minute with Shamarie Spencer just failing to finish off some excellent play.

In the second game against Barbados Blue the BVI having learnt from the last game made an excellent start with Maxwell and Thornton running in first half tries. In the second half BVI scored through Grashaun Audain and a fourth try for speedster Maxwell. The Bajans managed two scores but never looked in the game as Keil, Etienne, Thornton and Maxwell controlled the game which ended 24-12 to BVI. There were also Pleasing performances from Dan Petrovic, Cleus Staple, Kenrick Thomas, Calden ‘Chubby’ James and Eugene Maduro. Unfortunately for BVI with only two minutes to play talisman Thornton was felled by a strong Bajan tackle and as a result his tournament came to an early end.

In the final game against the full Bajan national side Thornton’s leadership and reading of the game was sorely missed as the Bajans ran in three early tries in the first half as BVI heads dropped. After some stern words and encouragement at half time the BVI played much better in the second half but could not score and the end result was a 15-0 loss.
Importantly a young BVI side with many 15/16/17 year olds had performed well against an older Bajan side who were mainly 18-19. The challenge now for many of the Under 19s is to break into the National 7s side and travel to Cayman in November. Certainly the likes of Thornton, Keil, Audain, Maduro and Etienne are big and fit enough to play men’s rugby so the future looks bright. In days gone by Victor Franklyn used to be game plan for BVI Rugby, we now have a potential team of ‘game plans’ to nurture over the next few years. For coach Solo with youngsters such as Adriel Singh, Victor Emparo, Staple, Thomas, James and Petrovic who all have at least another 3-4 years of Under 19s rugby the challenge is to build a 15 a side team to compete next year in the NACRA championships and beyond.

BVI Rugby would like to thank all its sponsors who have contributed over the past few years to make the junior program possible, in particular platinum sponsor Digicel and diamond sponsors Krys Global and SHRM. Further thanks to Maples, Captain Mulligans, Walkers, RTW, Caribbean Cellars, TICO, Hempel Boyd, DHL, Lennox Paton, AMS, Harneys, DYAS and the BVI Olympic Committee who have all made important contributions to enable us to reach this stage.

Rory Thornton (Working, ex-Cedar)
Grashaun Audain (HLSCC – Elmore Stoutt)
Eugene Maduro (HLSCC – Elmore Stoutt)
Kareem Etienne (HLSCC – Elmore Stoutt)
Daniel Petrovic (US VI)
Noel Maxwell (Cedar)
Austin Keil (Cedar)
Kenrick Thomas (Elmore Stoutt)
Calden James (Elmore Stoutt)
Melvin Knight (Seventh Day)
Shamarie Spencer (Seventh Day)
Cleus Staple (Seventh Day)

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