Executive Summary
The Barbados Rugby Football Union enjoyed a memorable 2005 and created history in many areas of the sport of Rugby. Our most memorable achievement for the year involved the crowning of the Senior National XV as the Caribbean Champions thus winning progression in the 2007 Rugby World Cup Qualifiers, where in Round 3B, Barbados will meet both the USA in Canada.

Also in 2005 the BRFU were successful in making strides forward in other areas of the game of rugby. This included the establishment of the first ever Women’s National Rugby Team, the securing of a Rugby Development Officer to promote Youth Rugby, the successful hosting of the 2005 Digicel NAWIRA Men’s and Women’s Rugby Sevens Tournament and the selection of a Bajan Player into the West Indies Rugby Sevens Squad.

Women’s Rugby/National Women’s Rugby Team
The BRFU were successful in establishing a foothold for Women’s Rugby in Barbados. Until 2005 a National Women’s Rugby Team had not existed in Barbados, however, within months, under the experienced tutelage of veteran Barbados National Loosehead Prop Martin Varga, Barbados were able to boast a competitive Women’s Rugby Sevens Team. This team competed in the Digicel NAWIRA 2005 Women’s Sevens Tournament conducting themselves with pride and passion considering their relatively short introduction to the game. Karen Holmes, one of our aspiring female players, created her own history by being the first female rugby player to score a ‘try’ for Barbados in an International Rugby Tournament.

Women’s Rugby has been highlighted as one of the fastest growing sports in the World and the BRFU are very proud of their fledging Women’s squad. Our Women’s Squad is currently preparing for games against St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago, and hopes to compete again in the 2006 NAWIRA (North American West Indies Rugby Association) Women’s Rugby Sevens Tournament.

Youth Rugby/National U19 XV
The BRFU were also successful in securing the services of an experienced Rugby Development Officer, Dennis Hargreaves. Mr. Hargreaves, a former National Division Two Coach from the English Rugby League, has been working tirelessly promoting and coaching the game of Rugby in six schools in Barbados. ‘Den’, as he is affectionately known by all of his young protégés, has been successful in attracting new talent into the game and our Youth Squad. Mr. Hargreaves is committed to training and preparing our U19 National Squad (Colts) for fixtures against St. Vincent and St. Lucia early in 2006 and for the forthcoming NAWIRA U19 Rugby World Cup Qualifier Tournament scheduled for July 2006.

Sevens Rugby/Barbados National Sevens Team
Early in 2005 the Barbados RFU were successful in having five players, Antonio Gibbons, Dale Cumberbatch, Jamie Vernon, Anthony Bynoe & Kurt Johnson selected for the West Indies Sevens Rugby Squad that played in the International Rugby Board, World Sevens Series in Los Angeles. The West Indies Sevens Rugby side, the showcase of rugby talent for the region, competed against world rugby playing nations such as England, New Zealand, Australia, France, South Africa, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Scotland, Uruguay, Argentina, Canada, USA and Mexico

Also in 2005, NAWIRA awarded the Barbados Rugby Football Union the right to host the 2005 Digicel NAWIRA Men’s and Women’s Rugby Tournament. This Tournament, for the abbreviated version of the game, hosted in November 2005, was the largest Rugby Tournament ever to have been hosted in the Caribbean. The Tournament attracted 12 Nations consisting of over 250 participants and approximately 20 officials to the Island of Barbados.

The NAWIRA Men’s Sevens Trophy was contested by 12 Teams including Trinidad & Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, BVI, Guyana, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Mexico, Dominican Republic and Barbados (2). The NAWIRA Women’s Sevens Trophy was contested by 7 Teams including Trinidad & Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and the USA.

An enthusiastic and boisterous crowd of approaching 1000 spectators watched the Finals, which were played under the National Sports Council’s temporary floodlights at the home of rugby in Barbados, the Garrison Savannah.

Jamaica ran out winners of both the NAWIRA and Caribbean Championships, beating Trinidad & Tobago in a very entertaining Final that lived up to the expectations of the spectators.

Whilst the USA took the NAWIRA championship honours by winning the overall Women’s Tournament with Trinidad & Tobago securing the Caribbean Championship Trophy.

This Tournament included a match between a West Indies Women’s Select Side and the USA Women’s Team. Two players from the Barbados Women’s National Team, Karen Holmes and Simone Ward, were selected to play in this side, again writing themselves into the Barbados Rugby Football Union’s history books.

The Tournament proved to be such a success that NAWIRA have invited Barbados to host this Tournament again in 2006.

The Digicel NAWIRA Men’s Rugby Sevens Tournament provided an opportunity for all the participating players to showcase their talent to Barbados Head Coach and West Indies Rugby Sevens Head Coach, Joe Whipple. The West Indies Rugby Union, having received an invitation for the second year running to the International Rugby Board, World Sevens Rugby Series in Los Angeles, used the Tournament to select a squad of players to represent the West Indies at the Carib Beer International Rugby Sevens Tournament held in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Bajan player Antonio Gibbons, a relative West Indies Sevens Team veteran, made the squad and was part of the West Indies Select Team that went onto win the Trinidad Tournament. Antonio is working hard to gain selection into the squad that will represent the West Indies in February 2006 in Los Angeles.

Antonio Gibbons, a star player in the Barbados and West Indies teams, was featured in the Rugby World Magazine in February 2006. This journal, the World’s Best Selling Rugby Publication, enjoys international distribution figures that can only be envied by other sports publications.

Senior Rugby/Barbados National XV
However, our most prestigious achievement in 2005 involved our National Senior XV, now crowned the Caribbean Rugby Champions in the full format of the game.
In August 2005 Guyana played host to the Americas Zone Rugby World Cup Qualifying Round 1A Southern Caribbean Championship, which saw Guyana, Barbados, St Lucia and Trinidad & Tobago fight it out for the Southern Caribbean Rugby Honours. The favourites were Trinidad and Guyana with Barbados being considered the ‘underdog’.
Match day one saw the Barbados National XV come back from a 17-7 deficit at half time to defeat home team Guyana 27-17. Match day two, saw the Bajans, take early advantage of their stronger forwards to provide the basis of a four try to one victory over Trinidad and Tobago by 25-13 and in winning Barbados had broken a 25 year long unbeaten streak by Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean Championship. The Bajan National XV maintained their unbeaten form during the Tournament to win the Southern Caribbean Championship and Round 1A of the Rugby World Cup 2007 Qualifiers. St. Lucia struggled manfully against Barbados, but succumbed to a 13-try, 87-0 loss. Our National XV enjoyed the advantage of size, strength, speed and experience, and ran out worthy winners of the match, and of the Southern Caribbean Championship and went onto face Bahamas on 1st October 2005 in the North-South final.
Barbados again entered the Caribbean Championship as the ‘underdog’. Barbados underlined their regional supremacy with an emphatic 52-3 victory over the Bahamas to claim the Caribbean Championship and a place in Round 3B of Americas Qualifying Group for the Rugby World Cup 2007, alongside relative superpowers USA and Canada. Barbados proved far too strong for the Bahamas, champions of the North who had earlier eliminated Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Bermuda. From the first moments of the game, Barbados seized the initiative, launching an opening onslaught that saw them race to a 10-0 lead inside 12 minutes and a commanding 31-3 half time lead.
Barbados' victory over the Bahamas secured them a place in Round 3B of Rugby World Cup 2007 Qualifying Competition where we will face both the USA and Canada. The Barbados National Senior Squad are two wins from representation at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France a feat that has never been achieved by Barbados, nor any other Caribbean Nation. The winner Round 3B will qualify directly to the World Cup with second place team in the group having to qualify through two repechage games.
In the achievements of the National XV, the flagship of the Barbados Rugby Football Union, they have attracted worldwide attention and the imagination of rugby players throughout the rugby playing world. The International press including Rugby World, Total Rugby, Canadian Rugby News and the British Press are following this “rag to riches” story. Also, in May, Barbados has been invited to undertake a training camp at the British Army and the Leicester Tigers, arguably the best professional team in the world.
Whilst the BRFU prepare for encounters at home against Canada in June 2006 and away against the USA in July, the world watches in growing anticipation that Barbados, the ‘underdogs’, can achieve one of the biggest upsets in World Rugby