Coach Lar­ry Mendez closed off T&T's prepa­ra­tions for their World Cup rug­by qual­i­fi­er with an in­tense ses­sion yes­ter­day, at King George V Park. The team fo­cused on game man­age­ment in de­fence and at­tack. "We start­ed at 8 am and the guys re­spond­ed well." A 22-man squad was se­lect­ed on Tues­day and Mendez said he was hap­py to see the ef­fort and en­thu­si­asim of some of the play­ers who weren't se­lect­ed. "It's a team ef­fort. The at­ti­tude among the guys is great. They are as ready as could be."

T&T take on Guyana in an all or noth­ing qual­i­fi­er at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Prov­i­dence, George­town, Guyana on Sat­ur­day.

The Ca­lyp­so War­riors will trav­el to Guyana to­mor­row. One change has been made to the team that beat Bar­ba­dos 32-3 two weeks ago, at the St Mary's Col­lege Grounds. Roy­alian's cen­tre Kel­son Fi­garo has been re­called and will re­place An­drew Tay­lor who has re­turned to Uni­ver­si­ty in the UK. Rug­by chair­man of the se­lec­tors and team man­ag­er Cur­tis Nero has ex­pressed con­fi­dence that the team is fit and pre­pared.

"The young play­ers have made strong claims for se­lec­tion. How­ev­er, giv­en the cru­cial na­ture of the en­counter, we felt we need­ed a mix of ex­pe­ri­ence and youth. We ex­pect a close-fought and phys­i­cal bat­tle. Guyana are at home and in a must win sit­u­a­tion. They beat us by two points last year in our back­yard. We are up for the fight this year."

Team

For­wards: John Hill (Har­vard), Miguel Lara (Caribs), Ernest Wright (Caribs), Adam Fred­er­ick (v capt)(Trinidad North­ern), Ja­mal Clark (Caribs), Keis­hon Walk­er (To­ba­go), Wayne Kel­ly (Har­vard/UTT), Row­ell Gor­don (Har­vard), Fe­li­cian Guer­ra (Roy­alians), Ja­son Joe­sph (Po­lice), Jesse Richards (UWI), Kurt Quashie (Caribs)

Backs: Jonathan O'Con­nor (capt) (North­ern), Don Ro­jas (Caribs), Joseph Quashie (Har­vard/UTT), Ja­son Clark (Caribs), Ag­boola Sil­ver­thorn (Rain­bow), James Phillip (Roy­alians), Justin McLean (Trinidad North­ern), Tariq Cheekes (Har­vard/Fa­ti­ma), Kel­son Fi­garo (Roy­alians) and Daryl Scott (Rain­bow).

Head Coach: Lar­ry Mendez

Asst Coach: Dale Trot­man

Train­er: Derek Ash­by

Team Man­ag­er: Cur­tis Nero