Just 17 years after first playing rugby league, Jamaica’s Reggae Warriors made their World Cup bow on Sunday night.
There was no memorable win - that would have been dreamy - but after the journey they’ve been on, that wasn’t the point. As the first Caribbean side ever to reach this level, they had already made history when stepping out against an Ireland side made up mainly of full-time professional players. And with a big Jamaican population in Leeds, they weren’t short of support at Headingley, especially for Chevaugn Bailey.
A comparative rookie, he plays in the island’s domestic amateur competition for Duhaney Park Red Sharks. Lead coach Jermaine Coleman said: “He’s a local player who’s never played Championship or even League 1. He’s come over here and played the full 80 minutes. It was phenomenal. As a whole, though, it's an amazing achievement for us and there’s a lot of hard work gone in over a number of years.
“It’s well-documented there’s lots of time we’ve had to pay our own way to be here. Now we have to push on. Rugby league has still got a disconnect with the Caribbean community here but we saw with the fans tonight there’s an appetite for it. Now we need to feed that - then go back over to Jamaica and up-skill players on the island.”
When it comes to skill, though, there aren’t many more skilled players than Luke Keary. It showed the calibre in the Ireland ranks that the ex-Australia stand-off was making his debut for them.
The Sydney Roosters star, whose grandad hails from Galway, was a class above as he set about unpicking Jamaica, finally making his bow after being injured for the 2017 World Cup finals.
He said: “I loved it. I was pretty emotional when I saw my name on the shirt. And it’s great to have my mum and dad over here. It’s one of the proudest moments of my career. It will stay with me forever. The weather got me a bit - I lived at Bondi!
“But it was great. We’ve ticked that first box. Now we kick on for a big game against Lebanon on Sunday.”
Louis Senior (2), George King, Brendan O’Hagan, Ed Chamberlain , Innes Senior, George King, James McDonnell, James Bentley and Frankie Halton got Ireland’s tries, with Kieran Rush slotting Jamaica’s historic first World Cup points with a penalty.
