Cayman Islands Beat Mexico

The Cayman Islands defeated Mexico today, winning 39-17 at the Truman Bodden Complex in Georgetown. It sees the teams finish equal on 9 competition points in the Rugby Americas North Championship. An official placement is yet to be confirmed by RAN.

Despite the historical results being dead even between the sides, today’s win was an upset. This is also the case despite the Cayman Islands having had home advantage.

Mexico won the 2016 fixture 34-24. Moreover, in this year’s competition Mexico entered with wins over both the USA South Panthers and Bermuda. The Caymans, by way of comparison, defeated Bermuda but fell in their match against the Panthers.

Today’s match was the ninth between the Cayman Islands and Mexico. In winning the Cayman Islands now hold a 5-4 all-time record.

The extent of the significance of the win cannot be underestimated. Mexico is a rapidly improving country. World Rugby considers the country as being a longterm priority. Compared to the Caymans, Mexico has a far larger list of players to select from for international duty.

CAYMAN ISLANDS
1 Jordan Southway, 2 Danny McGrath, 3 Jonny Gibson, 4 Chris Kennedy (capt.), 5 Mark Soto, 6 Sam Anderson, 7 Alex Robertson, 8 Ben Blair, 9 Morgan Shelver, 10 Morgan Hayward, 11 James McGinn, 12 Mikey Wilson, 13 Venasio Tokatokavarua, 14 Justin Wight, 15 Eddie Westin

Replacements: 16 Peter De Vere, 17 Johann Fourie, 18 Andy Hall, 19 Joey Westin, 20 Shane Westin, 21 Alex Pineau, 22 Iain Currie, 23 Abdul Patterson

MEXICO
1 Marcos Flegmann, 2 Mizael Loredo, 3 Max Douek (capt.), 4 Sebastián Díaz, 5 Cesar Treviño, 6 Santiago Prieto, 7 Roberto Calderón, 8 Simon Pierre, 9 Andrés Rodríguez, 10 Miguel Carner, 11 Fharid Samano, 12 Pascal Nadaud, 13 Franco Guerrero, 14 Luis Arredondo, 15 Rodrigo Ripoll

Replacements: 16 Pedro Morales, 17 tba, 18 Erik Castillo, 19 Tobias Hernández, 20 Alejandro Chávez, 21 Diego Ramírez, 22 Luc Martin, 23 Rodrigo Márquez