Source: www.guardian.co.tt
North America and Caribbean Rugby Association (NACRA) Regional men’s 15-a-side championships will begin on Saturday with round one matches featuring eight countries. Involved in early action will be Barbados against St Lucia; St Vincent and The Grenadines versus the British Virgin Islands in the South Zone and Cayman against Jamaica and Mexico against USA South in the North Zone. The winners of the round one matches in each zone will then play off for the right to advance to round two, where it will play off against the top teams in the region. The winners of round two will then play each other to decide the 2011 championships.
Current Caribbean champion, T&T, will be looking to keep its No. 1 ranked position in the Caribbean, though will face stiff opposition from the likes of Bermuda, which has had recent victories over Cayman Islands and the Bahamas. With the regional qualifier for RWC 2015 a little over a year away, all teams will want to perform well in order to secure a high seeding for the qualifier. T&T, which is the highest ranked regional team on the International Rugby Board World Ranking list, will clash with archrival Guyana on May 28 in Trinidad. T&T is at number 46.
Current NACRA -Caribbean Regional 15 -a-side rankings:
1 T&T; 2 Guyana; 3 Bermuda; 4 Barbados; 5 Bahamas; 6 Mexico; 7 Cayman; 8 Jamaica;
9 USA South; 10 St Vincent and The Grenadines; 11 BVI; 12 St Lucia