A physical game of rugby saw the more experienced Barbarians overcome the younger Arawaks 12-7 in the first of a best of three series. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Mark Sorrentino led the Arawaks line and almost scored a match winning try in the dyeing minutes of a hrad fought encounter. Photo: Charlie Jackson/VINO

Jon Draper kept a cool head to kick the Barbarians into a 12-7 lead in the second half. Photo: Charlie Jackson/ VINO

The match marked an important development in Rugby on the island as it was the first time the Arawaks, a mixture of VIslanders, Belongers and Down Islanders, had played a competitive game and is also a major step forward in the BVI Rugby Association's plans to have at least four member clubs and therefore gain full membership of the International Rugby Board.

As Coach Sam “Solo” Solomon explained, “I been around for about 3 seasons and it's good to see that we can now field two teams of BVI based players. The numbers are continuing to grow.”

The Barbarians were a combination of Expats and experienced players with a surprise weapon in Peter Fatialofa, a former Samoan rugby player, who captained the team in their first Rugby World Cup appearance in 1991, where they lost to Scotland in the Quarter-finals 28–6.

The Arawaks started off the much brighter of the two teams and if it hadn’t been for handling errors along with uncertainty in the second and third phase ball, they would have had a lot more than just the Andre Adams Try and Mark Sorrentino Conversion to show for a dominant first half display.

The 7-0 nil didn’t last long as the Barbarians made some tactical changes and brought on Fatafiola in the second half, who was soon in the thick of the action. However, it was Frank McGing who finished off a sublime passing move which stretched the width of the field and reduced the deficit with a try.

Matthew Plimmer started the ball having been fed from a ruck, he found Dustyn Mulver who evaded a couple of tackles before laying off the ball to McGing who side stepped his way past two defenders to score. Plimmer’s attempted conversion went horribly wrong and it would prove to be his last involvement as he aggravated an old injury to be carried from the field.

With the score 7-5, Fatafiola then drove over down the right hand side to finish yet another powerful set of drives from the Barbarians and Jon Draper made no mistake with the conversion to make it 7-12.

“It was good to see it fly over the posts. You can never be 100% about these things, but I just pictured it going over and thankfully it did,” said a relieved Draper.

Both teams then battled it out with surging runs and great tackles, but the Arawaks seemed the more likely to score as the resolute Barbarians held on using greater experience to clear their lines time and time again.

Sorrentino went on a long mazy run with less than four minutes to go and for a last ditch tackle that could have scored to give the Arawaks the win. It wasn’t to be, but the Barbarians knew they had been in a tough game and will have to watch out for the young up and coming stars of the game on the island.

“I saw the posts and thought I was going to make it,” said Sorrentino. “Their full back made a great tackle and I was caught short. We are a young side and haven’t played much together, all the boys played well together and we are getting there. In the second half they got a bit more physical and we will learn from that. There is a lot going for this team and I’m really proud of their efforts tonight.”

Coach “Solo” was also impressed with their first outing, but saw some areas for improvement. “They had some quick guys on the wing, but they seemed to focus on going down the middle using the forwards, if they had worked the ball out wide quicker they would have caused more problems. That’s down to inexperience and they will only get better.”

Draper also concluded that the Arawaks had come at them harder than expected. “They came at us hard in the breakdowns, drove us back in the breakdowns which surprised us, but we responded.”