T&T's rugby women's team road to Rio came to an abrupt end at the World Rugby Women's Sevens Olympic Repechage in Dublin, Ireland, yesterday, falling to three huge defeats.
The Ayanna Skeete led unit left it all on the field but was not good enough to match up to rugby powerhouse Ireland, China and Portugal, suffering heavy losses.In their opening match at the UCD Bowl, T&T suffered a crushing 51-0 defeat to the host.
Some two hours later, the local ruggerwomen went under to China, 34-5. T&T failed to get on the scoreboard during the first half, trailing 24-0 at the half. However, last year's "Player of the Year" Ornella George found some room and were able to complete a try to start the second session but that would be all T&T could muster. They did manage to improve defensively and held the Chinese to 10 points.
George was elated to score for T&T, complimenting her captain for the assist during the play.She said, "The try to me was long over due. It's an honour to score the first try with the pop off from Ayana."
In its final match of Pool C against Portugal, T&T slumped to a 42-0 loss to finish at the bottom of the group with three points, ending T&T's final chance to play at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in August.
Topping the Pool was the unbeaten Irish with nine points, second was China with seven and third was Portugal (five points).T&T now enters the loser's draw to battle for the Challenge Trophy today, where they will meet third place finisher in Pool B, Venezuela, in the quarterfinals.
"These team are on a circuit and have a lot of experience that we lack. But we are going into the game hopeful and trying to execute all that we have been practicing," said George said.
A victory will see the local team advance to meet the winner of the quarterfinal match between Hong Kong and Cook Islands.
Moving on to compete in the Championship Cup quarterfinals with Ireland and China are respectively, Russia and Samoa from Pool A, from Pool B are Spain and Tunisia; and Pool D, Kazakstan and Argentina. The eight teams will battle in a straight shoot-out for progression into the final.
Only the winner will join the other sides including New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, Colombia, USA, France, Fiji, Japan and hosts Brazil in Rio.