By PHIL CAPLAN
JAMAICA, used as the setting for a number of James Bond novels as author Ian Fleming had a house at Oracabessa Bay, is rebuilding after the effects of Hurricane Melissa.
The third-largest Caribbean nation was declared a disaster zone following the catastrophic impact which made landfall as a Category 5 storm, one of the most powerful ever recorded in the Atlantic.
It devastated large parts, leaving widespread damage to homes, hospitals, infrastructure and critical communications, with roughly three-quarters of the island suffering from power outages and significant flooding reported in several of the 14 parishes.
Naturally, scheduled sport took a back seat during the initial recovery but it is an integral part of national life, with Jamaica’s athletes tending to perform to a standard well above what might ordinarily be expected of such a small country.
Cricket and basketball tend to dominate while track and field athletes such as Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce have lit up the world stage.
Rugby league is starting to create an imprint, the JRLA established in July 2004. The inaugural season kicked off the following year with four foundation teams and now includes a two-division men’s National Club Championship, Intercollegiate Championship alongside high school and junior programmes, and a growing women’s competition initially started as Nines.
Understandably, the United States vs Jamaica men’s and women’s doubleheader planned for December 6 in Tampa, Florida was cancelled due to the impacts of the hurricane, not least because a number of the men’s and women’s Reggae Warriors’ players are in the army and needed for the clean up operations.
What did give them a lift in terms of morale, however, was being able to stage their planned men’s and historic, inaugural U19s clashes with Canada in Kingson as planned, with ticket proceeds going to the Hurricane Melissa relief fund.
Encouraging tourism, which is the largest foreign exchange earner, is part of the rebuild and the Canadians arrived a week early to hold a training camp in Montego Bay as part of their preparations.
Included within it was the annual East vs West Canadian Origin game, used as a final selection tool, the spoils shared 10-10.
Come the matches, Jamaica defeated Canada in both games at the University of West Indies’ Mona Bowl in the capital.
The senior men’s side overcame the Wolverines 34-12 in a game for world ranking points, Thundercats centre Tahj-Jay Lynch from current domestic champions with a hat trick, while the junior Warriors took the U19s clash 42-24, running in eight tries, three of them spectacular long range efforts.
“I would like to thank the Canadian Rugby League for sending two teams, especially at a time that our country is going through so much after the hurricane here,” said Jamaica men’s coach Roy Calvert. “It has been a real morale boost.
“We had a very rough, interrupted preparation but we stuck to it, the guys did what they were asked to, gave 80 minutes effort and that pulled us over the line.”
Back rower Jenson ‘Gas’ Morris and Lynch with his opener got the hosts off to a flying start, Jason Chuck with the first of his two tries crossing for the visitors who were behind 14-4 at the break.
Ricardo Richards and Joseph Daley crossed inside four minutes straight after the break to extend Jamaica’s lead, Chuck and winger Oliver Lenahan – who also played the full U19s game – sandwiching a further two Lynch touchdowns.
Canada men’s head coach, Aaron Zimmerle, commented: “It was a pleasure for us to come to Jamaica. I know the country is hurting after suffering through the hurricane and for our players to see how theirs have rallied around that, there are things more important than the result.
“We had nine debutants, and I was really proud with a couple of our younger ones, Oliver Lenahan was our most damaging player. To see him come through the Canadian player pathway system, I’m excited to see what he and others like him can become.”
In the curtain raiser, Lenahan crossed twice in a tight first half, Jamaica leading 18-14 at the interval, prop Luke Elliott a stand out for the hosts.
Brandon Gordon scored either side of the break to put them in control, speedy centre Tyreke Hutchinson also claiming a double and Oniel Williams finishing with 16 points.
“We are extremely grateful to Canada for coming out so that we could play this historic game,” said Jamaica U19s coach Oshane Edie. “They made a lot of good yards up the middle, but we worked hard on coming off our line and that paid off. Overall, we put in a good showing.”
Canada RL chair, John Cameron, noted: “It was great to have an U19s team on the pitch, a superb first experience for our boys and a good launch pad for us moving forward. We look forward to hosting the young Warriors in a return game.“
In the lead up to the matches on home soil, Jamaica exited the men’s World Cup 2026, losing to France 36-0 in a final qualifier in Albi.
Their head coach, Jy-Mel Coleman, commented: “We don’t have a massive player pool but, if I’m completely honest, it has been a bit of a let down from the last World Cup.
“Having us in that, or someone like us, does well for the game but now it isn’t to be. We need to do what we can from our side and see where we get to.
“We couldn’t afford to bring over any domestic players for the game in France, we’re limited financially which is a shame.”
Coleman added: “It’s a growing sport on the island and I don’t think it was great how the whole game was set up, it was geared up so France would be in the World Cup.
“The preparations from our side weren’t comparable in terms of the length of time we had together, we had one training session and a run through when we got out there, whereas they flew over to train against Australia in London and had a warm up game.”
Jamaica women have played their first game in the UK, the hurricane meaning that the side was made up of heritage players with those from the recently formed women’s domestic competition unable to travel, not that the JRLA currently have spare money to enable that.
The women led 12-0 against Scotland at Featherstone Lions then conceding 38 unanswered points, but it proved to be a worthwhile exercise for the Reggae Women.
Sophie Robinson, who won Grand Finals and Challenge Cups while at Leeds and played 7s for Jamaica in 2022 in the Bahamas, and who is now training to be a teacher, came out of retirement to try and guide the fledgling women’s side.
“I’ve been speaking to Romeo (Monteith, the JRLA director of rugby) for quite a few years and was probably one of the first players to commit to playing for Jamaica,” she said.
“They’ve been really developing, and I always wanted to be part of that having played at the highest level, so anything I can do to try and progress the game, I was always willing to.”
Given Jamaica women’s heritage number four, the renowned food blogger continued: “We had a few rugby union girls wanting to come over and play and there is quite a lot of talent in the team, it would be great to marry it with the locals.
“If we’d had more training together, I think we could have beaten Scotland, a lot of the girls were new to the game and didn’t know the basics.”
Robinson continued: “When I signed up, we only had two players so there is progress and now people have seen us against Scotland, maybe more will come forward.
“It’s going to be slow growth, but now we’ve got a team we can develop and work towards something which is great.”
Her ambition is to go out and play in an international on the island, with Women’s World Cup qualifying for 2028 on the horizon, and again likely to be in an Americas pool.
Currently helping to coach the Leeds Rhinos U16s girls, she can also see scope for integrating some Jamaican domestic players in Betfred Women’s Super League, as York did so successfully last season with Ugandan Peace Lekuru.
“We need to improve the international game as a whole and use it to promote rugby league a little bit more, that’s how we’ll get more people involved,” Robinson said.
“We’ve got such a massive Caribbean community in England who, if they know we are playing, will come out and watch, we’ve not really kicked on since the Jamaica men made the last World Cup here.
“I have a long-standing knee injury that I might need to have surgery on, but league has been my life, and I don’t ever see myself fully stepping away.”