The Cayman Islands men’s national rugby 15s team will be taking on Mexico in a test match set for Saturday, 11 Dec. in Mexico City.
The squad of 23 players is heading to Mexico on Friday, 10 Dec., the first time since 2019 that Cayman will be taking part in international competition.
“This will be the first 15s [test] game for the Rugby Americas North region, coming back after COVID,” Cayman Rugby Union director Jovan Bowles told the Cayman Compass.
Due to the pandemic, international competition has been limited to rugby sevens, so the test match between Cayman and Mexico marks the first 15s game in the region.
The last time the two teams met was in 2019, when Mexico set a record by beating Cayman 105-17, marking the first time in history that the Las Serpientes’ scored over 100 points in a game.
The last time Cayman beat Mexico was in 2017, taking that match 39-17.
Bowles said the upcoming fixture will serve as an opportunity to play “against the best and see where we are”.
He added, “In Cayman’s eyes, Mexico is the most competitive team in the region and for us to get back into preparation for Rugby Americas North 2022 championship, we felt it was a great opportunity.”
Bowles noted that 18 new players will be travelling with the team in hopes of being capped.
The game will kick off at 3pm Cayman time.
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Mexico is obviously a very tough opponent, but I’m surprised Mr Bowles makes no mention of them having to play the match at an elevation of 7,350 ft in Mexico City. This puts our team at a great disadvantage and and they are likely to become quite stressed in the second half.