T&T’s men’s and women’s rugby teams gave battling performances but finished on the losing ends of their Rugby Americas North (RAN) friendly matches to Mexico Saturday.
The men’s team got a perfect start but was beaten 24-10 at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar, Arima, while the women’s team surrendered to a 27-17 loss at Deportivo Harp Helu in Mexico City.
It was a much-improved performance for the country’s men’s team from their 45-14 defeat last year in Mexico City. But under gloomy conditions at the Arima venue, the home team signalled their intentions early when Liam Cabralis tried to push the home team ahead 5-0, only for Nathan Achim to fire in the conversion that propelled the home team 7-0.
Things got even better for the Dale Trotman-coached team when Achim struck again from the penalty kick to send the score to 10-0, a far cry from the score that greeted local fans early in 2025. However, the Mexicans stormed back, courtesy of three tries from Luc Alexandre Martin Olivo, which included a final try in the 68th minute, after which the game was blown off due to fading light.
Trotman told Guardian Media after the match that his charges produced a performance that had even him shocked.
“It was actually, the game itself was to my surprise, and it was really good with the boys, the young boys that went out there,” said Trotman. “We had a really nice start; they started according to our game plan and went ahead. What happened is that, as normal, we tend to lose focus a little bit, but I would say generally we did well because last time we played against Mexico, the score at the half was nowhere near this. So, it’s a great improvement going forward.
“I wasn’t expecting my team to be, as in, really hitting those rocks going forward. I thought Mexico, knowing Mexico, would be here, and we would always be on the back foot defending. Defending-wise, we did excellent because, knowing that we started the campaign early in the year, but because of the things in between, ups and downs, sponsorship, all these things we didn’t get through with games and all that kind of stuff, we did very well.”
The result jump-started the T&T preparation ahead of future tournaments next year. Trotman said his team now has the option to play against either Peru or Colombia at the end of the year in another friendly.
