Despite being invited within days of the competition, T&T's President's Select finished top of the North American and Caribbean (Nacra) Under-19 Rugby Championship with a one-sided 46-0 win over Guyana in the final round, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Wrightson Road, yesterday.It was a fitting consolation for the host country, which was booted out of the main competition, the cup tournament, on Wednesday following an unexpected loss to Barbados.
The team, however, was not to lift the trophy, due to its position as runofficial replacements for the Bahamas which withdrew from the competition.As a result, the Turks and Caicos Islands, which won its third and final round-robin match, 46-0 over St Lucia, received the trophy, despite finishing second.At the end, the Guyanese finished third and St Lucia, fourth.
The trophy competition was introduced to allow the lesser established U-19 teams in the region some competition. The regional Nacra is to decide whether teams will be promoted to the cup competition for the next season.
Meanwhile, host T&T will play its fifth/sixth-place decider today when the team faces the Bahamas, from 12 pm. The match will precede the third place play-off and the final which will be played at 2 pm and 4 pm, respectively.T&T slumped into third place in the three-team Pool B, after following up on a win over Mexico (14-7) with a 24-20 loss to Barbados, which saw Mexico take first and Barbados third.As a result, Mexico will face two-time defending champion the Cayman Islands in the final, after Barbados and Jamaica play for third.