In a heart-stopping final qualification game, the National Men’s Rubgy Team of Costa Rica was able to secure two tickets: One to Mexico for the Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz later this year, and the other to Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The rugby sevens match between the national teams of Costa Rica and Guatemala ended in a tie with each team scoring 12 goals each. The teams were also evenly matched in tournament points, which made it necessary to define the Veracruz 2014 spot by calculating goals scored. In this regard, Costa Rica had the advantage.

Colombia and Venezuela will also travel to Veracruz since their rugby sevens national teams qualified along with Costa Rica. According to the bylaws of the Central American and Caribbean Games, South American nations with substantial Caribbean coastal territories are allowed to participate and qualify for this regional athletic competition.

Costa Rica made the cut from a total of fifteen teams. The players and coaching staff are very excited about the opportunity to represent the nation in Rio de Janeiro in just a couple of years. It will be the first time rugby sevens will be played at the Olympics. The last time rugby was an Olympic event was during the 1924 Summer Games in Paris, and that was rugby union, which features 15 players and full contact.

Rugby sevens requires greater athleticism and strategy that speeds up the game considerably by focusing less on the physical contact. Detractors of rugby sevens tend to be purists who favor the painful scrums and all-out fighting of rugby union; however, spectators tend to enjoy the flow of play in rugby sevens matches.

The National Women’s Rugby Team of Costa Rica made headlines last year when they took first place at the short ConSur C International Rugby Tournament, which means that they are the reigning queens of rugby in Central and South America. Consequently, they will be special guests at the South American Rubgy Tournament in Rio de Janeiro next year.

Here is the current lineup of the National Men’s Rugby Team of Costa Rica:

Eugenio Masís, Team Manager

Christian Soto, Coach

• Eduardo Siles
• Andrés Ortiz
• Marlon Cerdas
• Iván Bogantes
• Gabriel Sánchez
• Leonardo Muñoz
• Franklin Zúñiga
• Byron Monge
• Pedro Madríz
• Rafael Ulloa
• Alexander Gómez
• Lucas Withinston