Bermuda have named a 13-man squad for the Rugby Americas North Sevens Qualifiers in Nassau, Bahamas this weekend.

In the build up to the tournament, head coach Jamie Barnwell’s preparations were dealt a blow with the experienced Tashon DeSilva being ruled out through injury, while Mikey Dill is also unavailable, after opting to take a break from the sport.

However, having cast his eye over perspective players, Barnwell has still been able to name a strong squad among his final selection.

Significantly the return of the highly-influential Tom Healy from injury, is a major boost for the squad which will be captained by Stephan Smit with Dan Cole serving as vice-captain.

Hadleigh Tucker is in line to make his debut for Bermuda, while the likes of Alex Brown, Darren Klein, David Lunn, Rory O’Kelly Lynch, Jahniko Francis and Jamie Baum add further experience, having been part of the previous squad for the RAN Sevens tournament in the Turks & Caicos in October.

Chris Mewett, Dzuri Gill and Antonio Perinchief Leader make up the rest of Bermuda contingent.

The two-day event ― which includes senior men’s and women’s divisions ― will also serve as qualifiers for this year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens in Cape Town, South Africa in September, as well as the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England in July.

The top two men’s teams and one women’s team from the event will book their ticket to the Rugby World Cup Sevens, while the highest-placed men’s team eligible to participate in the Commonwealth Games will represent RAN, alongside Canada, whose men and women’s sides have already pre-qualified.

Bermuda have been placed in group D which also includes Barbados, Belize and Dominican Republic.

They will kick off their campaign on Saturday against Belize in their opening round robin group match before facing Barbados and Dominican Republic later in the day.

Action continues on Sunday with consolation matches for the teams that finish outside of the top two in the group stage, which will be followed by the men’s and women’s championship matches.

SQUAD

Jamie Baum, Chris Mewett, Alex Brown, Darren Klein, David Lunn, Stephan Smit (captain), Tom Healy, Dan Cole (vice captain), Rory O’Kelly Lynch, Hadleigh Tucker, Dzuri Gill, Jahniko Francis, Antonio Perinchief Leader.