The Cuckoos won the Heineken Bahamas Rugby Cup championship game on Saturday knocking off the defending champs, Buccaneers, 13-10.
The Cuckoos are champs once again. After they were forced to watch last year's Heineken Cup from the sidelines, the Cuckoos returned to take this year's cup in dramatic fashion. They trailed for most of the first half, but the Cuckoos bounced back late to take a 13-10 extra time win over the defending champions Buccaneers RC in front of a packed crowd at the Winton Rugby Pitch on Saturday.
Michael Watkins got the Cuckoos on the board early, scoring on a try in the first 10 minutes of action. Brian Baker then converted on the extra point. The Bucs responded shortly afterwards, as Andrew Bell delivered their first points of the game, cutting the Cuckoos lead to two. Minutes later, Dorian Roach caught a kicked ball and ran it 60 yards to put the Bucs ahead 10-7.
With time winding down in the first half, Baker tied things up at 10 after the Bucs were called for a penalty. Neither team scored again for the remainder of regulation, but in extra time, the Cuckoos capitalized on another Bucs' penalty, which set up Baker's game-winning kick.
The Cuckoos failed to make the Heineken Cup championship game the past two years, but were back this year, and were not going to be denied.
In the semi-final match-ups, the Cuckoos knocked off the Freeport Rugby Club, while the Bucs topped the Baillou Rugby Club.
Since 2012, Heineken and the Bahamas Rugby Football Union (BRFU) have partnered to re-name the annual Bahamas Rugby Cup as the Heineken Bahamas Rugby Cup. Heineken provides branding, marketing and advertising support.
The Heineken Bahamas Rugby Cup runs for 23 weeks and features three teams from New Providence (Baillou, Cuckoos and Buccaneers) and one from Freeport, Grand Bahama (Freeport Rugby Club).
The Cuckoos captured the first two editions of the newly renamed event in 2012 and 2013, and Baillou won the cup in 2014. The Bucs prevailed last year.
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