Jamaica captain Ashton Golding says the ‘Reggae Warriors’ are determined to prove they are more than just a “gimmick” when they kick off their inaugural Rugby League World Cup finals campaign against Ireland at Headingley on Sunday.
Golding is one of three Super League players – along with Huddersfield Giants team-mates Michael Lawrence and Kieran Rush – in a squad that also features six players from Duhaney Park Red Sharks, the dominant force in Jamaica’s domestic competition.
Despite still lacking a single dedicated rugby pitch in the country, Jamaica became the first Caribbean team to qualify for the finals at the third time of asking, beating Canada 38-8 before a decisive 16-10 win over the United States in Jacksonville in December 2018.
Golding told the PA news agency: “I’ve played in a few games with big crowds and expectations, but nothing quite beats the excitement that comes with representing your country in a World Cup.
“I’ve been on this journey for five years and it has changed me as a person. I’ve found out there is so much more to me than this kid that was born in Bramley in Leeds – there’s another side to me and my family that I wasn’t really aware of.
“What we want to take away from this World Cup is the experience but also the platform for the growth and development of the next generation. We want people to sit up and take notice that Jamaica has a rugby league team and we are very serious about it – we are not just a gimmick.”
Jamaica made their first attempt to qualify for the 2013 World Cup, less than a decade after the sport was essentially founded in the country, and again for the 2017 campaign, but both times found their way blocked by the United States.
Progress continued to be frustrated by a lack of access or financial backing in the country, with national squads routinely refused access to the best pitches on the island and forced to compete on hard grounds with few or no facilities.
A fundamental change in the approach, designed to integrate eligible UK-based professionals with domestic players in Jamaica, finally paid dividends under Romeo Monteith, a member of the Jamaican association’s founding board in 2004 who is now in his 10th year as the team’s head coach.
“We dreamed about the World Cup in the early days but we were a little bit unrealistic,” admitted Monteith. “We didn’t make it in 2013 or 2017 and I wasn’t sure I was going to see it happen in my lifetime.
“We sat down and realised we had to build a chemistry between our UK-based players, whilst still building and growing the level of our domestic players. When we combined the best of those together, we were able to overcome that hurdle.
“My hope is that if there is a kid in Jamaica or in the UK of Jamaican heritage, they will soon discover the story of the Reggae Warriors and have a dream themselves to one day play in a World Cup representing Jamaica.”
