The Jamaican national team is set to depart the Norman Manley International airport today as they set their sights on overcoming Canada on Sunday, July 31st in Markham, Ontario. The squad completed a successful camp at the GC Foster College which has been at the forefront of revolutionizing the sport on the island, providing the JRLA with much needed support, especially in respect of facility and community development. They spent two nights together and underwent four field and one classroom session for video analysis. The squad has been training twice per week.
Team manager Romeo Monteith, is happy with the preparations to date, “I think we have done well with the resources we have at our disposal, the camp at GC Foster was certainly a good way to get the team to build team chemistry and the players are eager to perform well on Sunday. The tactical awareness of the players is improving, there is a lot of pride and passion in this squad, it’s the first time a travelling national team will contain only domestic based players and so we all want to do well to showcase the strengths of our local game.”
Leading try scorer in the Kingston Championship with 15, Tyronie Rowe, is expected to spearhead the Jamaican attack. Canada will attempt to avenge their 32-12 defeat to Jamaica the last time the two teams met in the USA in November 2010.
JAMAICA SQUAD
Damon Gayle, Jermaine Pinnock, Marvin Thompson, Roy Calvert, Romaen Campbell, Robert Rodney, Ryan Grant (Duhaney Park Red Sharks RL),Adrian Myers (GC Foster College RL), Nicholas Wright (Maxfield Star Steppers RL), Claude Yen, Carlye Burger, Everton Richards, Jahdeek Clarke, Jade Harrison, Omar Jones, Tiege Jackson, Sandino Hastings, Tyronie Rowe (Vauxhall Rugby Club).
Management Staff: Ventley Brown- JRLA Chairman, Romeo Monteith-Head Coach, Andrew Dixon-Liason Officer, Richardo Robinson-JRLA Match Official.