Saint Lucia rugby teams win two Caribbean sevens trophies in one weekend

Saint Lucia rugby came home with two trophies and a lot more than silverware to show for a hectic weekend of Caribbean sevens. The Saint Lucia Rugby Football Union sent 65 players to three tournaments in three different territories, and returned with the women's title at the inaugural MADA Sevens in Martinique and the SVG Independence Sevens crown in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, secured by club side Rogues RFC. Both results arrive at a good moment, with the Rugby Americas North Regional Qualifiers due next month.

As reported by St. Lucia Times, the SLRFU Women's Select side were the headline act in Martinique, where they overcame Guadeloupe 24-14 in the final. Guadeloupe brought strong French rugby connections, a solid technical grounding and seasoned regional campaigners to the contest, but the Saint Lucian women handled the challenge with a controlled, disciplined display to lift the trophy at the first running of the tournament.

In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Rogues RFC were even more emphatic. Bolstered by two guest players from Guyana, the club conceded only five points in three matches. They opened with a 21-0 defeat of SVG Police, overwhelmed Leewards Rugby 40-0, then closed out the tournament with a 17-5 win to take the Independence Sevens title.

The youth programme was also in action. The Saint Lucia Rugby Youth Academy finished fifth at the MADA Sevens, a respectable placing against experienced opposition from across the region. Further south in Trinidad and Tobago, two Academy prospects, Randall Polius and Annela Phillip, were thrown straight into senior regional competition at the Royalians Sevens, gaining early experience of the level they will need to reach.

SLRFU technical director Wayne Pantor praised the players for how they went about their work across the weekend. He said testing themselves at a higher level of competition is what builds the mentality and habits of winning teams, raising the bar on performance and sharpening overall output. Regional tournaments, he added, let players measure themselves against genuine quality while giving coaches a proper read on the squad away from local fixtures.

Pantor framed the weekend as part of a longer build. The exposure, he said, is critical as the union works to assemble competitive teams, reinforce its development pathways and ready its players for the Rugby Americas North Regional Qualifiers in November. With selection for those regional engagements still to be settled, the two trophies and the match sharpness gained in Martinique, Saint Vincent and Trinidad give the coaches real evidence to work with.

The results are a notable snapshot of how far rugby has come in a country better known overseas for cricket in St Lucia and for the achievements of its track athletes. Rugby's growth here has been built on school and community programmes much like those that feed football, which remains the island's most widely followed game, played after class and followed with the same passion supporters elsewhere reserve for the Premier League. A national union now able to field 65 players across three territories in a single weekend is a sign that those grassroots structures are delivering.

For the island more broadly, sporting success of this kind matters beyond the scoreboard. Sport in Saint Lucia is closely tied to national identity and to the way the country presents itself abroad, and results that appear in regional coverage help keep the destination in view. They also feed into community pride in the same way local league football, athletics meets and the island's calendar of celebrations do, giving young players visible examples of what can be achieved from a small population.

Visitors with a sporting bent will find the rugby scene welcoming but still developing, and most will build a trip around the island's more established draws. There is no shortage of things to do in St Lucia beyond the pitch, from the rainforest trails of the interior to the twin peaks of the Pitons rising over the Soufrière coast, and the weekend tournaments that dot the regional calendar occasionally give travellers an unexpected fixture to drop in on.

Timing matters for anyone combining a trip with the island's sporting or cultural life, since the dry months from December to May are generally regarded as the best time to visit St Lucia for outdoor events and reliable conditions. Travellers weighing up flights to St Lucia for next year will find the island well served from the UK in season, with accommodation to match most budgets, from family-friendly beachfront stays to the luxury hotels in St Lucia's resort areas and the smaller boutique hotels in St Lucia's design-led properties around Rodney Bay and Soufrière.

For now, attention within the union turns firmly to November. The Rugby Americas North Regional Qualifiers will show whether the momentum of a two-trophy weekend can be converted against the region's strongest sides, and whether players such as Polius and Phillip, given their first taste of senior regional rugby in Trinidad, can push into selection contention. The SLRFU will hope the lessons Pantor highlighted, tested under pressure against quality opposition, prove decisive when the qualifiers begin.

What the weekend has already confirmed is that Saint Lucia's rugby programme is no longer a fringe activity. Two trophies, an academy side holding its place in a new tournament, and two teenagers blooded at regional level amount to a body of evidence that the development pathways Pantor describes are starting to produce results, and the November qualifiers will be the next test of how far that progress can carry them.