Caribs take Bruno Browne title

CARIBS RFC secured their first Bruno Browne Cup victory in three years when they defeated rivals Northern RFC 16-15 at President’s Ground, St Ann’s on Saturday.

It came just one week after the Caribs edged Northern 27-24 to secure the TTRFU Marcus Minshall Cup.

Northern enjoyed the earlier part of the afternoon as their second team secured the Raffe Hosein Cup, with a relatively comfortable 32-17 win over Caribs’ second outfit.

The Bruno Browne was determined by kicks from Sefanaia Waqa – a Fiji-born TT national team player – scoring 11 points from Caribs’ 16-point total three penalties and a conversion off a Geddes Phillip try.

Waqa opened with a penalty in the 13th minute, before Northern went ahead minutes later through a James Phillip try.

Sebastien Navarro missed the conversion attempt but redeemed himself with a penalty seven minutes later.

Caribs reduced their deficit to 8-6, which would last into the break when Waqa scored a second penalty on the half hour.

Within a minute of the restart, Caribs went through a try from Phillip, whose effort was complemented by a Waqa conversion.

The match was decided when Waqa, a crucial player for Caribs’ this season, scored a hat-trick of penalties just before the hour mark.

Northern got back in the match with a late James Phillip try in the 77th minute, which was converted by Navarro.

Their efforts, however, were not good enough to win them a first major title this season.

Both teams will be back in action this weekend in the Championship Division league competition.

Recently crowned league champions Harvard will host Northern on Saturday at Harvard Pitch, Queen’s Park, from 4 pm, while Royalians and Caribs will meet on Royalians Pitch simultaneously.