Reggae Warriors ready to take Jamaican fire to US and Canada

Jamaica are gearing up for their World Cup qualifiers against the USA and Canada, and are comfortable with being regarded as underdogs.

The Reggae Warriors travel to Florida in December, facing hosts USA on December 4, before playing Canada four days later, also in Florida.

“Anything can happen over 80 minutes, our players are really motivated as they have never beaten the USA before and we have lost to Canada in our last three meetings,” said Jamaica head coach Romeo Monteith.

“Our aim is to play good rugby, enjoy the games and give a good account ourselves. There is a lot of pride in our camp as our programme here has been steadily improving over the years and we know many people are rooting for us to do well.”

The Jamaicans have been unable to arrange any practice games ahead of the trinangular series, but Monteith is optimistic that his players can cope with a lack of match sharpness.

“We will definitely be cold in that first game, our combinations and team chemistry will be heavily tested and it’s up to us as the coaching staff to mentally stimulate the team and get them switched on,” he added.

“We have been addressing that with some high pressure training sessions in Kingston and the squad has been responding well. We have over 30 players vying for positions and they are trying to create a competitive environment within the squad to compensate for the lack of actual matches.”