TT edge USA South in rugby thriller

JELTT coach Rhett Chee Ping credited his team's pride and heart, after a strong second half showing led the national team to a narrow 34-33 victory over USA South in the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Men’s 15s Tournament at St Mary’s College Ground in St Clair, Saturday.

TT now have two wins from two in the championship division, after rallying to defeat Bermuda 27-24 at St Anthony's College Ground in Westmoorings, last month.

Yesterday, TT found themselves trailing again, down 12-27 at halftime to USA South, before a brilliant comeback gave the hosts the narrow victory. After the match, Chee Ping said, "They showed a lot of heart, we knew it would come down to the wire. We trained for it and the guys showed a lot of pride in coming back."

Chee Ping, replacing Kyle Wynyard as coach for this match, said TT tried to limit the number of errors in the second half. "We were down quite a bit (at the half). We were making some errors and we just needed to clean up the game and try and get rid of some of the mistakes that we were making," Chee Ping said. Wynyard could not coach TT for this match as he had to return to his home country of New Zealand.

The cool conditions yesterday afternoon seemed to help USA South, as they jumped out to a 10-0 lead after 15 minutes with a try, a conversion and a penalty kick.

In the 17th minute, TT responded with a try from Jamaal Stewart, followed by a conversion from Sebastian Navarro which cut the USA South lead to 10-7.

Midway through the first half, another USA South penalty kick put the visitors ahead 13-7. The TT supporters appreciated the effort by the national players, led by captain Felician Guerra, who fought his way through multiple tackles. Shortly before the break, some strong play by Jamal Clark on the left side led to a try by Guerra as TT reduced the deficit to 13-12.

However, TT ended the half poorly as two tries and two conversions gave USA South a comfortable 27-12 cushion at the break. With less than 10 minutes left, USA South seemed to be heading for a win with a 30-22 lead. However, the fleet-footed Agboolah Silverthorn showed his athleticism, running half the length of the field down the left side to reduce the deficit to 30-27. Sebastian Navarro could not complete the conversion for TT, before a penalty kick by USA South made it 33-27.

TT was not giving up, and another athletic play gave the home team another try, as Johnason Alleyne made the score 33-32 as the clock ran down. Navarro, who did not have the best match, held his nerve to complete the conversion as TT prevailed with an exciting 34-33 win to the delight of their cheering fans.