National rugby coach upbeat, despite heavy loss

Mike Jackson, coach of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Rugby Union, remains upbeat, despite his senior men’s team heavy defeat against Jamaica last Saturday afternoon at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, in the 2019 Rugby World Cup qualifiers.{{more}}

The host team came away with a 46-0 beating on the day, in front of an appreciative crowd, which was estimated over 1,000.

“It was not a disheartening performance…. I am proud of the players; they showed a lot of courage against a more experienced, stronger and bigger opponents,” Jackson told SEARCHLIGHT.

Jackson, who was overseeing his first major outing with the team, noted that it was a new experience for him and the players.

“I am relatively new to them as a coach and they are adjusting to the new system of play and one has to take into consideration it was their first competitive match in almost a year,” he stated.

In reviewing the match, Jackson commented: “As I told you before, I knew it would have been a tough game …We had a shaky start and we never recovered from that…. We did a lot of things right..We got them to make mistakes, but we did not capitalize on them, but when we did, they made use of it.”

Jackson said that although it is the end of the road for the Vincentians in the World Cup qualifiers, the team needs to get more matches under its belt in order to gain more game experience.

The national rugby coach lauded the support of the many persons who turned out to the venue last Saturday and who lent support to the local team.

Tries from Jamaica’s captain and fly-half – Hubert Thomas, flankers – Steve Miller and Errick Groves, along with prop – Orien Smith and centre – Reinardo Richards, contributed to the lopsided score line.

Other inputs came from a double from Crisdan Grayson and winger – Shamar Creary.

The win gave Jamaica an advancement in the qualifiers and an improvement on their rankings from 78th to 72nd.

On the other hand, St Vincent and the Grenadines dipped three places from 82nd to 85th on the World Rugby stage.

Saturday’s match opened the World Rugby qualifiers, with the final set for Japan 2019.

The qualifiers comprise about 200 matches across six continents. Twelve teams have secured berths in the final, gained from finishing in the top three of their respective pools.(RT)