Leslie Figaro and Anthony Laurence both retained their positions as president and vice-president of the T&T Rugby Football Union (TTRFU), respectively, after the local governing body for the sport held its annual general meeting, at the Solomon McLeod Lecture Theatre, Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, recently.
There was an strong turn-out of clubs and affiliate members, which took part in the process and heard the executive committee's account for 2013, the year under review, and plans for this year.
Figaro successfully returned as president, comfortably holding off the challenge of Brian Stollmeyer, a rugby and business icon.
A key element of the 2013 review was the success of the TTRFU's national men, women and Under-19 teams. Last year, the men's 15s team secured the North America, Caribbean Rugby Association (Nacra) title after defeating Barbados and Guyana. The senior sevens team, meanwhile, performed admirably in the Nacra Sevens competition in the Cayman Islands, taking a third-placed finish behind Canada and the USA, respectively.
The victory saw T&T qualify for a spot at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Hong Kong Sevens, which also gained the team an invitation to the Las Vegas International Sevens and a training camp in Chile, playing with teams from that country, as well as Peru and Uruguay.
The women's team also participated in the Nacra Sevens and placed third overall behind Canada and Mexico, respectively, after defending host Cayman Islands (14-7). For this, T&T's women also earned an invitation to the Las Vegas Sevens.
Meanwhile, the 2013 Nacra U-19 Championship, which was staged in T&T welcomed 10 foreign teams. In the lower tier of the competition, one of the teams opted out of the competition late on, which gave T&T an opportunity to include a second team–the President's Select. The U-19 team finished third in the Nacra Caribbean Championships, which was hosted at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, where they defeated Barbados in the third and fourth-place play-off, while the President's Select won all of its matches in the group. After a successful showing, the TTRFU won the bid to host the 2014 Nacra U-19 Championship.
At the AGM, it was found that all local fixtures were completed during last season, which saw the introduction of a U-17 Boys' League.
The national rugby team, partnering with the High Performance Unit of the Sport Company of T&T (SporTT) came in for high praise.
Rugby also received a boost as President Anthony Carmona accepted an invitation to become the patron of Rugby. Carmona commended rugby on its initiative in making available life changing choices for the youth who have made mistakes and are in a vulnerable situation.
The TTRFU was founded in 1922 and will celebrate its centenary in 2022. According to the TTRFU, a proposal has been submitted with a compendium of suggested activities to commemorate the milestone.
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