Harvard leads Championship and Senior Rugby Divisions

Harvard completed a 39-10 victory over Defence Force, at the Defence Force pitch, Queen’s Park Savannah, on Sunday, to remain on top of the second tier local rugby competition, the T&T Rugby Football Union (T&TRFU) Senior Division.

The win came only 24 hours after Harvard’s Toyota Championship Division outfit demolished another protective services team Police RFC 163-0, to set a new record for the highest ever win in T&T’s league. Harvard started strongly and went into the half leading 29-10, through tries from David Gokool, Keston Earle, Lloyd London, Jerome O’Brien and Kurt Quashie, the latter two of which were converted by Gokool and Antonio Jardine, respectively. Matthew Lewis and Jake Hiscock then sealed two second half tries. Gokool, O’Brien, Quashie, Lewis and Hiscock all scored tries in the historic match the day before. The win put Harvard on 10 points from two wins and two bonus points, while the University of the West Indies (UWI), which won its two opening matches, is on nine. UWI was on a bye on Sunday.

 

 

Caribs, meanwhile, continued to struggle in the division as it suffered a third consecutive loss, this time to Rainbow 19-15. It was Caribs, however, which started with the greater intensity and left the pitch at half time with a 12-0 lead, with a pair of tries from Jamal Clarke. Again, in the second half, Caribs started brightly with and went 15-0 up through a Sean Caesar penalty. It was all Rainbow thereafter. David Straker, Negus Jack and Aaron Cooper, scored one try each in the second half, with Damian Deane convertin two of the efforts, to see Rainbow edge its opponents for a first win of the campaign. Caribs, however, left the bottom of the standings due to its loss being by seven or less points, putting it above reigning champions Tobago RFC, which played only one match thus far. Tobago and third-placed Stag Trinidad Northern were scheduled to play on Sunday, but the match was subsequently postponed, due to the hosting of the “Great Race” which concludes in the sister isle.

 

Standings

Teams P W DF L F A Bonus Pts

Harvard 2 2 0 0 79 27 2 10

UWI 2 2 0 0 39 19 1 9

Northern 1 1 0 0 31 19 1 5

D Force 2 1 0 1 38 39 1 5

Rainbow 2 1 0 1 36 52 0 4

Caribs 3 0 0 3 44 74 1 1

Tobago 1 0 0 1 7 15 0 0