Thu | Dec 26, 2024

Bad day for Lady Crocs

Ja’s women will not be contesting any of the major prizes on offer at RAN tourney

Published:Saturday | July 15, 2023 | 12:11 AMLennox Aldred/Gleaner Writer
The USA South’s Amanda Reehling (left) and Jamaica’s Naomi Dodd battle for the ball during the Rugby Americas North tournament at the UWI Mona Bowl yesterday. The USA South won 37-0.
Ricardo Makyn
The USA South’s Amanda Reehling (left) and Jamaica’s Naomi Dodd battle for the ball during the Rugby Americas North tournament at the UWI Mona Bowl yesterday. The USA South won 37-0.

Unlike the under-19 men’s team, Jamaica’s senior women’s rugby team will not be contesting any of the major prizes on offer at the Rugby Americas North (RAN)tournament following two losses on yesterday’s third day of competition at the UWI Mona Bowl.

In the first match on day three, the Lady Crocs were totally outclassed 37-0 by USA South who dominated the local girls to seal their place in Sunday’s final.

The Jamaicans were looking to bounce back from that heavy defeat when they took on the Cayman Islands and looked intent on doing so after taking an early 5-0 lead. The Cayman Islands, however, rallied to even things up at 5-5 in the first half.

The Lady Crocs would then find themselves down 5-10 and then 8-13 and they could not find an answer in the later part of the game with the Cayman Islands team holding on for the surprise upset.

Despite the double loss, player-coach Micha Newman says she was encouraged by the heart shown by the team after the early setback.

“I think we brought the spirit after the morning game where we were down in the dumps, but in the afternoon game we brought a lot of heart and I couldn’t be more proud of the team.”

Newman emphasised that a number of the Jamaican players are still getting used to the new 15’s format.

“We have some seven’s players coming into the 15’s, so it is a bit of a change for them and we have a lot of new players as well that are adapting into that format. It has been tricky at times, but they are getting it. From where we started to where we are, we are absolutely flying and there is a lot to build on.”

Meanwhile, in other results on Friday, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) secured a 34-12 win over the Cayman Islands with USA South rattling up their second win on the day when they defeated Mexico 12-7. Mexico rallied to get the better of T&T 19-0 in the final game of the day.

In the meantime, the National U-19 men’s team will go for championship honours today when they take on USA South in the final at 3 p.m. The bronze medal game will see Bermuda taking on T&T at 1 p.m. with the fourth-place play-off seeing Cayman Islands taking on Guyana at 11 a.m.