The Garrison Savannah was invaded by Canada on Sunday.
But it was a rugby invasion.
Canada’s rugby side Balmy Beach started their tour of Barbados with an impressive performance, brushing aside a local select team 19-12 in the first of two “friendly” internationals.
The early minutes of the match were dominated by the local men as they pressed the visitors hard and confined play to the Canadians’ 22-metre line, but they were unable to translate that dominance into points on the scoreboard.
A lot of hard work from captain Jeren Clarke, Raj Edwards, Che Springer, Jae Bowen and Dorian Browne should have resulted in a score, and the Bajans eventually paid the price for not taking full advantage of opportunities they created.
Rapidly adjusting to the conditions and the opposition, Balmy Beach managed to outfox Barbados when the speedy Tyler Allen broke through the line to score the first try of the match. Sean Gowland then kicked the conversion to take the score to 7-0 to the visitors.
Barbados suffered a serious blow when big Che Springer had to leave the field with an injury, and things didn’t get much better after that.
The local team seemed unable to make any headway in the scrums, and Balmy Beach went on to score another unanswered try and conversion, compliments of Chad Harris, taking the score to 14-0 at the halfway mark.
Passion and emotions ran high after the interval with a pushing and shoving session which ended with Barbados’ Romain Bourgeois shown a red card after a physical incident with a visitor.
Bajan centre Sean Ward was also sin-binned (on the bench for ten minutes after a yellow-card offence) as was a Balmy Beach player, leaving both teams short of their full complement.
Being two men up gave the visitors the advantage, and a Tyler Sopik try took the score to 19-0, and out of Barbados’ reach.
The local team suffered another loss of personnel as captain Jeren Clarke was forced off the pitch with a bloody head, and Daniel Ramsay took a knee to the head and was also helped off.
The Bajans, to their credit, did keep their heads up and pressed forward with determination.
Raj Edwards made sure his 100-plus kilograms were felt by the opposition, and wily Sean Ward came close on several occasions before veteran Kenneth Payne powered through the now-vulnerable Balmy Beach defence to put up the first Bajan points of the match. (BA/PR)