January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
Bermuda to take on Cayman
Squad looks to avenge last year’s defeat
The squad, who will also play Canada Under-21s on the tour, has been invited over by the Cayman Rugby Association, which has put up the Cayman/Bermuda Challenge Trophy for the game.
It is hoped that the match can become a Caribbean equivalent of the intense annual battles between England and Scotland for the Calcutta Cup.
Bermuda coach Pete Shillingford, who will take the squad down to the island on Saturday, is hoping to avenge recent defeats at the hands of Cayman, even despite the absence of key players like Derek 'Bobby' Hurdle.
“It’s never a friendly game — particularly against Cayman. We have a good rivalry with them and we are hoping to get something going on an annual basis.
“We’ve lost on the last two occasions against them but I think we can beat them this time.
“We've got a lot of new guys and it has been a case of integrating them into the squad over the last couple of sessions.
“Training has been going well and we are quietly confident we can get a couple of good results. We really want to beat Cayman, that's the big one for us.”
He said the three-teams would compete in a triangular style tournament — the biggest assignment for the rugby boys this year.
“These are the only international games we've got this year, so we have been working towards it for two or three months.
“It's a bit of an experimental team and Bobby's missing which is a big blow but we've got quite a bit of talent. We'll have to play well as a team to win.
“If we put 100 per cent effort in down there, we'll get a result.”
He added that though the sport is traditionally perceived as an expat game the squad had it's fair share of Bermudians, with the ratio about 50/50.
“Cayman relies heavily on its expats but they've started to get an academy going and are trying to grow the sport there.
“It's perhaps got more potential to grow as a sport over there because I don't think they play football or cricket to the level that we do.”
Tour Schedule: Bermuda v Cayman, 5pm, Sunday, Bermuda v Canada U21, 5pm Tuesday.
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