The Cayman Islands, the smallest participant in the tournament, once again proved to be a notch above the rest when it captured its third consecutive North America, Caribbean Rugby Association (Nacra) Under-19 Rugby Championship last evening after whipping Mexico 42-17 in the title match.The final was played at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, immediately after T&T's one-sided 41-12 win over Jamaica in the third place play-off. In the first match of the day, Barbados took fifth after a 30-26 victory over Bermuda.As both teams teams were tied 7-7 at the half, the fixture had by all indications swung wide open for either side, but the Cayman Islands executed a typically disciplined, yet creative performance in the second half to ease to victory.
The British territory, with a population of under 60,000 outclassed every team en route to the title. The team opened with a 33-0 blowout of Jamaica on Monday, before winning Pool A with a 40-10 victory over Bermuda on Wednesday.Mexico, meanwhile succumbed to a 14-7 defeat by the tournament host and one of the title favourites T&T, but got the better of Barbados, 33-20. T&T subsequently lost to Barbados, 24-20, to give Mexico top spot and a spot in the final. T&T finished Pool B as runner-up, while Barbados took third.Contesting the third place play-off before the title match, T&T played a high-intesity performance against the Jamaicans, where the former was able to take the win comfortably.
Scoring T&T's tries were Anderson Joseph (two), Jonathan Blackburn, Dion Smith and Sebastian Navarro. Navarro had an outstanding match, converting every try and scoring two penalties. On the scoresheet for Jamaica was O'Kein Linton and Akeem Murray, with tries, the latter of which was converted by Takeem Creary.A day prior, the trophy competition, essentially a second tier event, ended with the Turks and Caicos winning the title. T&T fielded a team "the President's Select" which was to replace the withdraw The Bahamas. T&T won all of its matches, while Turks and Caicos ended runner-up, but it was decided by Nacra that the latter would take the title as T&T was not originally scheduled to participate. Guyana finished third in the standings, ahead of St Lucia, which finished last with no points.