Bermuda men’s rugby team have been crowned Caribbean champions after beating Guadeloupe 33-10 in the Rugby Americas North Championship final at North Field, National Sports Centre today.

Bermuda ultimately proved too strong for their opponents, despite a spirited fightback at the beginning of the second half, building on a 14-0 half-time lead to prevail courtesy of two tries apiece from Alex Brown and Jamie Baum, as well as a penalty try and extras from Dan Cole, to regain a title not won since 2012.

Alexandre Dagorn scored the visitors consolation try with Thomas Gouban adding the extras.

Jamie Barnwell, Bermuda’s head coach, could not hide his delight at fulfilling an important target he set when taking over the men’s team at the beginning of the year.

“We set ourselves this goal in January and to get across the line is fantastic, the boys have done a great job and so obviously we’re all very happy with that,” he said.

“This is a really important milestone for the team. There wasn’t any space for us not to win, we had to get a result to continue the trajectory we’ve been on and the boys did just that, it’s been a great team effort.

“There are a lot of people behind the scenes who have put a lot of work into the rugby programme in this country and Bermuda is seeing the results of that now, it’s good times at the moment.

“We’ve done what we wanted to do and now is time to reflect and see how we can push on further.”