So here’s the latest from the NACRA 7s Men’s competition.

With a State Department technical “glitch” making it impossible for the St. Vincent & the Grenadines team to get visas, that team had to bow out at the last minute. The result of this was that Pool A only has four teams. Since the tournament won’t have any playoffs - the top teams from each pool face off for the final, with 2nds playing each other for third, and so on - this won’t affect seeding.

But what it did affect was the number of games played by the teams in Pool A. The USA men’s team hasn’t started yet, as the Eagles only have two games to play on Saturday after their opener, against SV&G, is now a bye.

So on to the actual games.

Jamaica opened the tournament with a dramatic win over Barbados 28-26. Jamaica, paced by tries by Conan Osbourne, Mobolaji Agoro, and Marcel Garvey, led 21-7. But Barbados kept up the attack and scored a couple of late tries - Phil Lucas and Sean Ward adding to Dario Stoute’s tally to get them closer. Jamaica had scored their fourth thanks to Reinhard Richards to make it 28-21 with time up. But somehow Jamaica failed to control the ball at the end, and Barbados exploited their speed and Jamaica’s penalties to put Jae Bowen in at the corner. It was the only try not scored under the posts, and Tom Lucas couldn’t make the touchline conversion, so Jamaica escaped 28-26.

Like Jamaica, Guyana hoped to exert their physical dominance in their game against the Bahamas, and did aryl on with Claudius Butts and Ronal Mayers scoring early. Andrew Bodie torched Guyana for a Bahamas try, but Travis Bascom replied and eventually Guyana won out 38-19.

Meanwhile, the Cayman Islands pulled off something of a surprise 15-0 over Trinidad & Tobago.

In the second round of games, Mexico unleashed a polished and athletic-looking team, with Fharid Samano leading the way in an excellent example of how much a program can improve if their work at it. Mexico beat Jamaica 31-5. Canada got their first run-out, and throttled Bahamas, with Tyler Ardron a force in the middle and Ciaran Hearn and Adam Zaruba scoring two tries each in a 45-0 romp. 

Guyana edged Cayman Islands 14-12 to put themselves at 2-0.

So with the first two rounds done, Mexico is 1-0 in Pool A, USA 0-0, Jamaica 1-1, and Barbados 0-1.

In Pool B, Guyana is 2-0, Canada is 1-0, Cayman Islands 1-1, Trinidad & Tobago 0-1, Bahamas 0-2.