Cedar International and St. Georges are arguably more advance in school’s rugby and last Friday the two battled in the Under-14 and Under-16 division in an inter-school tournament held by the BVI Rugby Football Union (BVIRFU) at the A. O Shirley Ground.

 In the Under-16 division, debutants Elmore Stoutt High School could not match the intensity and skill level of the two top schools as they fell to Cedar 6-0 and then to St. Georges 6-1 in the preliminary rounds.

Cedar was favoured to win the division after defeating St. Georges 3-0. However, St. Georges outplayed their archrivals in the finals 2-1 to lift the Under-16 championship trophy. St. Georges’ Ahmad Mahoney was awarded the best player in the tournament.

“The team played very well. We made a lot of mistakes, but we controlled it and next year we will be better. It feels great to get the victory against Cedar,” said St. Georges captain, Arthur Carion.

Playing to a best of three game series in the Under-14 division, Cedar International took Game 1 by 3-2 on tries and then sealed the series with a 2-1 score in Game 2. Cedar’s Austin Keil was named the most valuable player of the Under-14 division.

St. Georges coach, Carl Barrett said rugby is taking shape in the school and applauded his players for sticking to the game plan in the second half of the championship game after being down 0-1 in the first half.

“The team played in patches very well and we still have room for improvements…During the championship game in the Under-16 division, I thought they did not do a good job of spreading the field. It was the first time out for many of the Under-14s and they showed that they have some talent and I am sure that in the near future they will perform up to standard,” Barrett stated.

Coach of Cedar International, Wayne Voogt said his players did well, but pointed out areas they need to work on.

“They were good defensively and on attack we had some great moments. The Under-14 and 16s boys and girls did well. In both divisions, we need to work on our passing because they seem to have some problems running forward and passing backward – it can be a little tricky at times,” Voogt stated.

He added that the Under-16 division match up was interesting because his players were “fast asleep” in the championship game after dominating the preliminary rounds.

“The first half they wanted it, but in the second half, the other team came out flying and we had no response,” Voogt added.

Rugby Development Officer, Sherlock “Solo” Sam has been spearheading the drive to introduce rugby to schools across the Virgin Islands. Currently, tag rugby is being taught, but there are plans by the BVIRFU to introduce contact rugby to a select group of players.

“The kids have demonstrated what we have done by introducing the kids programme,” said BVIRFU Secretary Rob McIntyre.

“We started last year with focus mainly on the younger kids – the primary school kids and we hadn’t really broken into the senior level, but this is a demonstration of what Solo has done to get into the high schools to develop the game. I was surprised by the standards and there are so many promising talented kids,” McIntyre alluded.

He added that under Sam’s guidance, there is a greater understanding of rugby.

“We will continue to develop the skills through the training sessions that Solo does in the schools, but also to get some of these kids into a group where we can form an academy because the long term goal for probably the second half of next year is to actually have a national team at Under-16 and Under-12 levels that we can take to other islands and compete,” McIntyre stated.

Share this story

---