Andre Adams ran a full 60 strength sapping yards to score the go ahead try and put the Arawaks on their way to a 12-7 victoy over the Bucaneers. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

The Final was played with intensity, speed and involved several crunching tackles. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Arawaks Captain Donovan Staples accepts the Championship trophy after the hard fought victory. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

The tournament involved two teams from the Virgin Islands, including the BVI Barbarians; two from the USVI, including the Buccaneers “B” team and San Juan Rugby Club from Puerto Rico.

The final itself was plated with great intensity and contained some big hard tackles from both sides as the Arawaks utilized their speed to go 5-0 up through a try from Jimmy Peters. However, the conversion attempt was missed and the Arawaks were left to rue the mistake early in the second half.

The Buccaneers’ Marc Grimes showed great strength to score under the posts despite the efforts of the Arawaks defenders to hold him up (quite literally). His try leveled the score at 5 each and when John Crougas converted the extra points the score was 7-5 in favour of the Buccaneers.

The intensity levels rose as both teams sought to secure victory and after several crunching tackles up stepped Adams to outpace the Buccaneers defense with a 60 yard run and a try that put the Arawaks up 10-7. Andy Simmons converted to make it 12-7 and the Arawaks held on for a famous win.

“I just wanted to get it over” said Simmons who missed the early conversion.

“The Buccaneers came really good,” said an exhausted Adams. “I started inside our half and had the legs to make it across the line.”

Peters took his first half chance well and noted after the battle, “I saw an opening down the right hand side and just went for it. Those guys came back at as hard and we had to soak up a lot of pressure.”

Coach Sam Solomon was very happy for all the teams who took part in what had a been a good day’s rugby. “I’m very happy with all the performances throughout the day, we expected more rivalry from Puerto Rico, but as it turned out St Thomas gave us the most problems.”

The Arawaks are developing very well with a lot of younger players gaining good experience under the influence of the older players. After this win they can definitely lay claim to being the best of the VI

In the earlier matches, the Arawaks beat the Buccaneers “B” 24-0, the Barbarians went down 29-0 to the Buccaneers “A” and then the Barbarians bounced back to beat the Buccaneers “B” 22-0.

The Buccaneers “A” beat San Juan 17-0 and the Arawaks held onto to beat the Barbarians 17-15. Buccaneers “A” beat their “B” team 25-0 and San Juan recorded their first win, 20-5 against the Barbarians.

In the last group game, San Juan made it 2 wins on the day with a 31-0 victory over the Buccaneers “B”, but it wasn’t quite enough to get them into the final.