Cayman Islands women's national rugby union team
Encyclopedia
The Cayman Islands women's national rugby union team are a national sporting side of Cayman Islands
, representing them at rugby union
. The side played its first 15-a-side test in 2004.
The initial training sessions saw about 14 women attending but as the reality of black eyes and bruises set in, the numbers quickly depleted. Then came an opportunity to train for a seven’s game against the national Jamaican women’s sevens team as part of a men’s sevens tournament being hosted in Kingston. The Cayman girls (all ex-pats) trained hard under Smudger’s tutelage but arrived at the tournament as definite underdogs. The Jamaican team possessed speed and experience but on the day in question this proved no match for the Cayman team’s discipline, structure and hard tackling and the sprinting prowess of Janie Fleming and Lorna Campbell. The Cayman team beat the Jamaican team decisively, twice in one day, which caused a major upset in the Jamaican camp. The inaugural Cayman squad returned home with a taste for victory and a strong desire to improve at sevens and develop into a full 15s squad.
Cayman Women’s Sevens Rugby Squad vs. Jamaica 2000
Karen Jessop
, Jessica Lane
, Tracy Iler
, Lisa Kehoe
, Janie Fleming
, Jane Robson
, Lorna Campbell
, Sinead Quinn
, Julie Falconer
, Rebecca Heap
, Michelle Cascante
, Angelique Crowther
, Sharon Hedger
With the small pool of players to draw on, the women’s squad focused on sevens for the next 18 months, representing Cayman at the Trinidad Sevens and the Las Vegas Midnight Sevens. Gradually numbers swelled to enable games of 10s and eventually 15s enabling Cayman to host teams from Seacoast USA, Jamaica and Queens University with the first ever National 15s game taking place against Jamaica in 2003 under the captaincy of Caroline Deegan. In those early years the girls were indebted to the succession of coaches (Richard Adams, Adam Craven and Kevin Crooks) and inspired by the enthusiasm of the first Caymanian women rugby players such as Loletta Hanna and Nathalee Curtis.
The exciting progress of the women’s squad in those early years was unexpectedly halted when Hurricane Ivan decimated the Cayman Islands in September 2004. Many Caymanians and ex-patriots alike were forced to evacuate the island for several months and the rugby club itself required extensive rebuilding and renovation. A small core of players remained on island and committed to promoting rugby and rebuilding the women’s program as soon as time and resources allowed.
Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory and overseas territory of the European Union located in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac, and Little Cayman, located south of Cuba and northwest of Jamaica...
, representing them at rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
. The side played its first 15-a-side test in 2004.
History.
In the late 1990s women’s touch rugby was flourishing in the Cayman Islands under the guidance of Chris “Jacko” Jackson. A small core of all round sports women (Tracy Iler, Mitch Taylor, Lisa Kehoe) and contact rugby veterans (Karen Jessop and Jessica Lane) were keen to take the next step into forming a women’s contact rugby team. With the employment of Richard Adams as the CRFU’s first Director of Rugby in 2000 momentum began to grow until ex-rugby league professional, Steve “Smudger” Smith, was enlisted as the first women’s contact rugby coach.The initial training sessions saw about 14 women attending but as the reality of black eyes and bruises set in, the numbers quickly depleted. Then came an opportunity to train for a seven’s game against the national Jamaican women’s sevens team as part of a men’s sevens tournament being hosted in Kingston. The Cayman girls (all ex-pats) trained hard under Smudger’s tutelage but arrived at the tournament as definite underdogs. The Jamaican team possessed speed and experience but on the day in question this proved no match for the Cayman team’s discipline, structure and hard tackling and the sprinting prowess of Janie Fleming and Lorna Campbell. The Cayman team beat the Jamaican team decisively, twice in one day, which caused a major upset in the Jamaican camp. The inaugural Cayman squad returned home with a taste for victory and a strong desire to improve at sevens and develop into a full 15s squad.
Cayman Women’s Sevens Rugby Squad vs. Jamaica 2000
Karen Jessop
, Jessica Lane
, Tracy Iler
, Lisa Kehoe
, Janie Fleming
, Jane Robson
, Lorna Campbell
, Sinead Quinn
, Julie Falconer
, Rebecca Heap
, Michelle Cascante
, Angelique Crowther
, Sharon Hedger
With the small pool of players to draw on, the women’s squad focused on sevens for the next 18 months, representing Cayman at the Trinidad Sevens and the Las Vegas Midnight Sevens. Gradually numbers swelled to enable games of 10s and eventually 15s enabling Cayman to host teams from Seacoast USA, Jamaica and Queens University with the first ever National 15s game taking place against Jamaica in 2003 under the captaincy of Caroline Deegan. In those early years the girls were indebted to the succession of coaches (Richard Adams, Adam Craven and Kevin Crooks) and inspired by the enthusiasm of the first Caymanian women rugby players such as Loletta Hanna and Nathalee Curtis.
The exciting progress of the women’s squad in those early years was unexpectedly halted when Hurricane Ivan decimated the Cayman Islands in September 2004. Many Caymanians and ex-patriots alike were forced to evacuate the island for several months and the rugby club itself required extensive rebuilding and renovation. A small core of players remained on island and committed to promoting rugby and rebuilding the women’s program as soon as time and resources allowed.
Results summary
(Full internationals only)| Opponent | First game | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% | |
| 2009 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% | |
 Caribbean Select XVCaribbean Select women's rugby union team The Caribbean Select rugby union team are an inter-island sporting side with players coming from Trinidad & Tobago , Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, representing them at rugby union... |
2011 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% |
| 2008 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% | |
| 2004 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.00% | |
| 2008 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00% | |
| 2008 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.00% | |
| Summary 2004- | 12 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 33.33% |
Results
See Women's international rugby for information about the status of international games and match numberingFull internationals
External links
- Cayman Rugby
- Cayman Islands on IRB.com
- Cayman Islands on RugbyData.com