Jahreem George scored two second-half tries and a conversion in each as Rainbow held off a spirited fightback from Rydeus to lift the T&T Rugby Football Union’s Senior Division 10-a-side crown at Queen’s Park Savannah II Ground in Port-of-Spain on Sunday.
Playing on a heavy surface following a downpour less than an hour before kick-off, Rainbow, winners of the divisional knockout title last month, took a 5-0 lead courtesy of a try by Emmanuel Cadette in the sixth minute but Johnson Alleyne missed the extra two-point conversion.
Six minutes later, Randy Regis scored another try, with George adding the conversion this time around to push the lead to 12-0 and Rainnbow were now well on their way to an easy victory, or so they thought.
The youthful Rydeus line-up was not ready to throw in the towel and with the Rainbow players distracted by off-field matters in their technical area, hit back with a try and conversion each from Karl Muckette and Marquis Samuel in the 16th and 17th minutes respectively for a shock 14-12 advantage.
George then stepped forward with two tries of his own in the 19th and 21st minutes as Rainbow reclaimed the lead at 22-14, while Alleyne missed the first two-point conversion and Themba Jack scored the second for a 24-14 cushion.
Rydeus still wasn’t going away and Samuel kept his team’s faint chances of pulling off the upset win when he scored their third try in the 30th minute and added a perfect extra two-point kick to pull within three points of their opponents at 24-21.
But that was as close as Rydeus would get as Jack then capped off his team’s dominance with a dazzling run through the Rydeus defence, leaving six players in his wake to score the important try followed by a two-point conversion for a 31-21 final score.
Both the Marabella-based Rainbow and Sangre Grande’s Rydeus reached the final after topping their respective round-robin pools from which the winners advanced straight to the final
In the other divisional playoff matches contested yesterday, Defence Force won by default from Exiles 28-0 for third while Royalians got the better of Police 30-19 for the fifth spot.