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Team Guam Rugby heading to Jakarta

by Dave Delgado

Guam - The Guam Men's National Rugby Team will be heading to Jakarta for some international competition. Team Guam will be stacked with talent as some of our off-island players are back home ready to represent the island.

National team coach Willie Heteraka told KUAM Sports, "This weekend we will be heading to Jakarta for the Asian HSB 5 Nations Series. The National Men's Rugby Team will be taking on Pakistan on Wednesday and the winner of that match will go through to the finals of the particular division tournament and will play on Saturday either against Indonesia or China. A number of players have arrived from off shore from U.S.A, New Zealand to bolster the squad. I'm simply pleased with the way that the guys have prepared for this up coming match and we hope to get past the first match Pakistan. We hope to give ourselves a shot at the finals by beating Pakistan."

The team will be made up of 24 players, which most are veterans that have competed off island before. For some of the players on the national team it's been a long time coming and it's about that time for us to bring home some hardware.

"Goals for this tournament are pretty much get a trophy," said Team Guam's John Arceo. We've been playing long, we deserve one, I deserve one, and Guam deserves one. Paul and I have been playing pretty much the same time, it's about time you know."

Speed and power will be the difference maker this time around when Team Guam steps onto the field. With the blend of young players and veterans who have been gaining experience around the country the guys are looking forward to showing the rugby world how Guam gets down.

"Basically what we want to do is, we have a very strong pack up front so we want to bring the ball up strong, straight forward and spin the ball out wide to our young backs. Our strengths are our defense; our Guam boy's have an islander mentality and we look to hit at every opportunity and we look to punish our opponents and on offense we look to spin the ball out wide to our younger backs," veteran Paul Claros said.