Jamaica's girls capture Caribbean rugby title

Jamaica women continued their rise on the rugby stage when they won the Caribbean title at the North American and West Indies Rugby Sevens tournament at the Garrison Savannah on Sunday.

The Jamaicans won four of their five matches against fellow West Indian opponents and claimed a tie against Guyana.

- Their only defeat was against the United States Developmental Eagles, which played in the tournament as an exhibition team. After the tournament, Jamaica�s manager Audrey Smith said she was pleased with the result. "We came here to win and we did that. We can safely say we are playing the best rugby in the Caribbean. We are also the 15s champions so everything is working quite well at the moment," Smith said.

The title did not come easy. On Sunday the Jamaicans had a nil-all tie with Guyana, but returned to beat St Lucia 34-0.

In the key encounter to decide the tournament winners, they got over Trinidad and Tobago 26-5, with several brilliant plays from Jem Edwards, Kaydian Gayle and AnnaKaye Morrison.

The trio was subsequently named to the West Indies representative team which played against the United States Development Eagles.

Trinidad and Tobago were second to Jamaica. They had several key players suffering from injuries and their only win on Sunday was a 42-0 hammering of lowly Barbados.

Meanwhile in the men's competition Jamaica were beaten by Guyana in the final.

The powerful Guyanese team won all of their matches in the tournament to take their first Caribbean title. They were aggressive against the lacklustre Jamaicans and had a big 34-5 win in the final. Guyana led 17-5 at half-time.

Leading the way for Guyana was Claudius Butts who had three tries, much to the delight of the large crowd.

Butts used his skills well, collecting the ball in the middle and switching to the left side, and sprinted down the left side to score.

In the semi-finals, Guyana defeated Bermuda 33-0, while the Jamaicans had a 17-12 win over the United States South.