North­east Acad­e­my (USA) will be aim­ing to re­gain the men's ti­tle when ac­tion kicks off in the fifth edi­tion of the To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Rug­by 7s tour­na­ment on Black Rock Recre­ation­al Ground, Cour­land, to­mor­row. The New York based team won in 2013 and was go­ing for a sec­ond crown last year, but had to set­tle for third be­hind the In­ter­na­tion­al team Star Blues and At­lantis al­so of the USA.

How­ev­er, this year North­east is fo­cussed on be­com­ing the first dou­ble win­ner in the five-year his­to­ry of the event. Play­ers Nathan Brake­ly told Trinidad Guardian that the team wants to re­turn to win­ning ways. "This is the third time com­pet­ing and we hope to win. We played in a tour­na­ment in New York last week­end and we have been train­ing all through the year."

North­east Acad­e­my is one of many for­eign teams which will be com­pet­ing over the two days of ac­tion. Aes­cu­lapi­ans of Eng­land is mak­ing a re­turn to the tour­na­ment af­ter play­ing in the first edi­tion in 2011, while Rug­by Que­bec is mak­ing its de­but. Man­ag­er of Aes­cu­lapi­ans Si­mon Payne said his team is an in­vi­ta­tion­al squad and as such many of the play­ers will be com­pet­ing as a team for the first time.

Payne added that his team is in To­ba­go to have fun. "The main rea­son for the team is the en­joy­ment of the sport and play­ing for fun at the high­est pos­si­ble. To­ba­go is a fab­u­lous venue. As a hol­i­day is­land it is un­beat­able. There are fan­tas­tic views and the places to stay are great."

Coach of Rug­by Cana­da Fred As­selin said his team is aim­ing to reach the fi­nal four. "I am hop­ing the team could fin­ish in the top four. We al­ways want to win. We don't go in­to a tour­na­ment with­out the hopes of win­ning but the re­al­i­ty is that they (the team) will get a fair shock. We have a young team." He added that he hopes the weath­er will be in his side's favour. "If it is nice weath­er it will be ad­van­ta­geous to us but it starts rain­ing it could be a dis­ad­van­tage. I know we could have both weath­er con­di­tions in To­ba­go." He said the To­ba­go In­ter­na­tion­al Rug­by tour­na­ment is well known.

"The To­ba­go 7s is gain­ing in rep­u­ta­tion. The (glob­al) sev­en's pro­gramme is on the rise be­cause of the in­clu­sion in the rug­by in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Cana­di­an (Rug­by Union) was search­ing for places to get ex­pe­ri­ence for our play­ers. We know that every year at the To­ba­go 7s there are some elite teams that come here. So it is great chal­lenge for our play­ers to get ex­pe­ri­ence at the high lev­el."

Last year's win­ners Es­h­er (Eng­land), At­lantis (USA), Cu­ra­cao, SVG Pi­rates (St Vin­cent and the Grenadines), US Wolves (Guyana) are Stars (In­ter­na­tion­al) are the vis­it­ing teams. The lo­cal chal­lenge will be led by North­erns who were the last T&T team to take the crown af­ter win­ning in 2011, while Har­vard was run­ners up in 2012. Oth­er lo­cal teams vy­ing for top ho­n­ours are De­fence Force, Rain­bow, Po­lice, Ex­iles, Har­vard and hosts To­ba­go.

The for­eign­er teams have dom­i­nat­ed the com­pe­ti­tion in the last two years as Es­h­er fin­ished sec­ond to North­east Acad­e­my in 2013. Six­teen male teams will com­pete in four groups in round robin play.