Trinidad and Tobago men’s rugby team will take on Mexico in the final of the Rugby Americas North (RAN) XVs tournament after getting an exciting 29-28 win over Barbados in the RAN South semifinal at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella on May 31. The final will be played on June 21, as the Mexicans defeated Jamaica 37-24 earlier last month in the other semifinal. In overcast conditions in Marabella, TT stormed out to a 26-7 lead at the half as Trizene McLean and skipper Shakeel Dyte both converted tries, while Karlan “The Tank” Alexander breached the Bajan defence with a pair of powerful tries of his own. The Barbados team weren’t just there to make up numbers, with the electric Simon John getting the first of his two tries midway through the first half. Shortly after the restart, TT extended their lead when the reliable Ruairi O’Farrell made it 29-7 with a penalty, one of his three penalty conversions in the game. John was at it again in the second half, as he skipped past a pair of challenges in the 67th minute to score as Barbados reduced the deficit to 29-12, with a D’Andre Phillips penalty conversion taking Barbados’ score to 14. With TT playing with a player short for large stretches of the second half, Barbados got another try in the 74th minute when Rajiv Grant scored after a calculated and patient attack from his team. The score read 29-21 in TT’s favour at that stage as Phillips converted another penalty. With time running out in the contest, the speedy John made a brilliant run down the right to earn his team seven points via a penalty try as they were just edged out by one point by TT in the end. For TT, the focus will now shift to the junior team as the men’s under-19 squad will contest the the RAN XVs tournament in Queretaro, Mexico from July 9-12. The six-team tournament will be contested via a round-robin format on July 9 and 10 to determine seedings for the final on July 12. The teams who will be competing alongside TT are Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Mexico and the top-ranked US.