15/12/2022
The FFP Cayman Islands Men’s National Rugby Team powered to a 35-14 win over Mexico on the Saturday 10th December at the Truman Bodden Stadium.
Mexico were visibly stunned at the start and quickly found themselves 9-0 down after as many minutes, with 3 penalties from Captain Conal Keane. The Cayman team were relentless with their line speed and forced Mexico into uncharacteristic errors, enabling the Cayman team to find good field position.
With the good field position the Cayman team were able to put some strong phases together before Mike Luxton saw half a gap and used his speed and power to score the first try. The try was converted by Conal Keane and Cayman were 16-0 to the good.
The pressure continued and so did the good field position. A solid scrum on Mexico’s 22 gave the backs room to deliver a first phase attack and a 2nd try, with Justin May finishing off a fine move in the right hand corner. A touch line conversion from Conal Keane added the extras and took the score to 23-0. Another penalty followed and a try on half time gave Mexico some hope for the second half. Cayman lead 26-7 at the break.
The second half started with similar pressure from the Cayman team, led by the outstanding back row of Paul Westin, Mike Luxton and Matt Arvier.
Mexico couldn’t get their patterns going and Cayman kept the power up for the rest of the game. The metronomic boot of Conal Keane took the score to 35 points with Mexico managing to score one more try before the end.
This was a brilliant team performance from Cayman and has set a good platform for the rest of the season.
Match Report-Ed Gough
📷 Cayman Photography