10 NOVEMBER 2005

The Rugby Unions of the Caribbean are honing their preparations ahead of the Caribbean Sevens Championship to be held in Barbados on 19-20 November.

Twelve teams from the region will play across four pools, with Barbados, Jamaica, Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico and Guyana set to battle it out for the top spot.

Other participating nations are British Virgin Islands, St Vincent & Grenadines, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic and Barbados A.

The tournament affords coaches a chance to introduce new players to the mix at international level, and with a combined West Indies team set compete once again - along with Mexico - at the USA leg of the IRB Sevens in Los Angeles next year, all players will be keen to impress.

Bahamas coach Andrew Davies, for example, will include thre teenagers in his team, which goes up against Jamaica in the pool rounds.

Everybody is growing together. It really boils down to who is willing to put in the hard work which determines the winner
Bahamas coach Andrew Davies

"I imagine Jamaica will be the toughest opponent in our pool," he said. "I anticipate that we are going to win that group or finish second. If we do this, then we will have to face tougher teams such as Barbados and Mexico.

"Mexico defeated a combined West Indies sevens side in Los Angeles last year and we recently fell to Barbados in the Caribbean Cup. So I expect for those teams to be just as strong in the seven aside match.

"The Trinidadian and Guyanese teams are also young and talented. Everybody is growing together. It really boils down to who is willing to put in the hard work which determines the winner.

"If our guys put in the work, maintain the commitment and get international competition at least three times a year, we would eventually win one of these tournaments. The overall goal of the Union is to produce the top sevens team in the Caribbean," Davies said.