The spate of international women's 7s competitions around the world shows no sign of abating this summer with Guyana the latest nation to take a major title.
Guyana retained their NACRA Women's 7s title with a 14-12 victory over Trinidad & Tobago on home soil earlier this week.
The competition was contested by six women's teams from the Caribbean region.
On day one of the round robin phase of the tournament, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago ("T&T") ground out a 5-5 draw. With both sides committed to strong defence, neither team found the space to release their speed merchants.
Mexico started day one where they left off in the 2009 NACRA Sevens with a 10-7 victory over the Cayman Islands. In their second match T&T ran out easy 27-0 winners against St Lucia while Jamaica easily overcame their neighbours Cayman 36-0.
In defence of their title, reigning Caribbean Champions Guyana got off to a fast start, easily defeating Mexico 46-0. After conclusion of the first round of matches, T&T, Jamaica and Guyana looked like the ones to beat.
In the highly anticipated match on day one, Guyana and Jamaica cancelled each other out and recorded a 0-0 draw while St Lucia recorded their first win of the tournament with a 12-0 victory over Cayman.
On day two of the tournament, Guyana maintained their impressive form with an opening game 46-0 win over Cayman, while T&T also piled on the points against the Caymanians, running out 43-0 in their first match of the day.
Jamaica's two victories over Mexico (19-12) and St Lucia (15-0) ensured a 2nd place finish in the round robin while in the much awaited match between Guyana and T&T, Guyana just edged out their rivals 12-0 to ensure the reigning champions finished as the no 1 seed going into the semi-finals, with T&T 3rd seed.
In the first semi-final T&T took and early 12-0 lead against Jamaica, through a converted Juliana Straker try , with Dalia Jordon-Brown adding a second. Lisa Fraser pulled the scores closer mid way through the second half with Anna-Kay Morrison adding the conversion to make the scores 12-7. As much as Jamaica tried to level the scores, the T&T defense held strong and advanced to the final and a more than likely re-match against Guyana.
In the second semi-final Guyana took a 14-0 half time lead with tries from Sabola Gray and Collette Hope with Trisha Munroe scoring both conversions. Despite some determined defense from St Lucia a 2nd converted try for Grey finished the game off to set up the as expected final for Guyana against T&T.
In the games for placings, Mexico were resounding winners over Cayman, 26-5, to take 5th place and in the 3rd / 4th place off, Jamaica defeated St Lucia 22-0 to take 3rd place.
In the final T&T took an early lead with a try from Jenilee Limada. Incredibly these were the first points that Guyana had conceded throughout the tournament.
A minute later Straker extended the lead with a try under the posts and converted herself to extend the lead to 12-0, a lead they took into the interval. Guyana got themselves back into the game mid way through the 2nd half with a Davison try which Hope converted to take the score to 12-5. In the dying minutes of the game Hope scored the winner under the posts after all seemed lost which was duly converted. Final score 14-12 to Guyana. Guyana retain their Caribbean Championship title for the third year in a row.
Overall Standings:
1st Guyana
2nd Trinidad & Tobago
3rd Jamaica
4th St Lucia
5th Mexico
6th Cayman Islands
