Trinidad and Tobago rugby men come up short at VAN Sevens

Trinidad and Tobago's men's rugby team came away empty-handed in their trip to Canada for the VAN SVNS Invitational tournament, as they lost all four games contested against Japan and the host nation Canada at BC Place in Vancouver.

On the first day of the tourney on February 21, the TT team, who were captained by Shakeel Dyte, lost 55-12 to Canada in their first match before being beaten 26-19 by Japan in a much closer encounter.

In their first duel with a Canadian team who beat the TT ruggermen in the final of the Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens tournament at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar last November, the visitors trailed 29-0 at the half. Late in the second half, TT grabbed two tries from captain Dyte, but it wasn't enough to stop the hosts from charging to a big win.

Ethan Hager led the way for Canada with three tries, two of which came in the first half.

In the second encounter on day one versus the Japanese, a powerful try from Jonathan Taylor pulled TT within touching distance late in the game as Japan held a 19-17 lead. However, Japan scored late to pull away for the win.

Isaiah Small and James Phillip also scored tries for TT in their loss to Japan on day one.

On February 22, the TT team didn't have much luck against the rampant Canadians who stormed to a whopping 50-0 victory. Seven different players were on the mark for Canada, with Jamie Armstrong and James Thiel scoring two tries each, to go along with items from Ben Greenstein, Michael Laplaine-Pereira, Morgan Di Nardo and Kyle Tremblay.

TT were beaten 31-15 by Japan in their second meeting with the Asian team, with Canada emerging victorious in the invitational tournament when they whipped Japan 51-12 in their final match to finish with a perfect 4-0 record.

On the eve of the tourney, TT Rugby Union president Maria Thomas told Newsday TT's teams need more of these types of competitions to raise their overall standard.

"This is what is needed to level up our game. Our team earned this experience and will no doubt return with insights that will propel our programme forward as we prepare to host the RAN Sevens again towards the end of 2025," Thomas told Newsday on February 20.

"It continues to be a goal of the TTRU to access higher and diversified competition for our teams, while holistically building out the support required for success."