Following the historic qualification of Jamaica’s men’s and women’s rugby sevens sides for next year’s Junior Pan American Games, team manager Bruce Martin believes they can be a dominant force globally with more financial support.

The Under-20 men’s and women’s teams will participate in the August 9-23 championship in Paraguay after the senior teams registered podium finishes at the Rugby Americas North Sevens tournament in Trinidad and Tobago last month.

The senior women made the final but had to settle for silver after a 12-19 defeat to Mexico, while the men ended with bronze after beating Mexico 12-0 in the third-place play-off.

Although the Junior PanAm Games are eight months away, Martin says they have already laid the groundwork for their preparation in order to be completely ready for the challenge ahead.

“Our first test is on January 11 at the UWI Mona Bowl; we have a club tournament that we’ll be entering with players from high school and college. The biggest test will be in January 18 at the St Catherine International Tournament at Prison Oval where they’ll go up against a stronger team to see what we have. Then we will be going to the Tropical Sevens in Florida from April 18-19 to fine-tune the team to blend our local and diaspora players and see our best players in action to make the right selection,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The lead up to the tournament will be a costly one and though the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) has committed to assist, Martin says more will be needed to be adequately prepared.

“Some of the parents have already committed, the players have committed to help themselves. We’re appealing to corporate to invest in sports; anybody who invests in sports is a good thing. The youths need it, giving them this experience is a stepping stone to bigger things and we definitely need all the support we can get. Think about the youths, think about the future and how far Jamaica can reach,” he said.

Jamaica’s Rugby Sevens team has seen success in recent years with qualification to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup as well as the Commonwealth Games and senior Pan American Games within the last six years.

Bruce is optimistic that this summer’s participation at the Junior PanAm Games will lead to greater success for the programme.

“Although rugby is the underdog sport, it’s a top five sport in the world outside of Jamaica. By us qualifying, I hope it will bring more attention to the youths and more high schools will reach out to get rugby in their programme and show them another side,” he said.

“Jamaicans are natural athletes, not just track and field and football. There’s other sports that we can excel in. Fiji is much smaller than us and they’re the number one rugby country in the world and we have athletes in Jamaica that can put us in the top 10 in the world, only if they open their mind to the sport and what it can offer.”

— Daniel Blake