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Des Drummond told Boots 'n' All that he never thought he would see the day when Jamaica had its own rugby league team.

The former Great Britain international teamed up with the J-Squad to ahead of this week's floodlit nines at Headingley to put the players through their paces and hand out some valuable advice.

"It's so funny because I've been thinking about getting involved in an organisation like this and I'm just happy to be here at the moment," Drummond said.

"It's a sport that is growing in Jamaica and around the islands so hopefully the development of it will be a positive move for us."
Gravitation

The squad is a mixture of British-based players with Jamaican ancestry and some from the recently established competition in Jamaica, like skipper Roy Calvert, a bank official from Kingston.

"Union has been played in Jamaica for 40-something years and it is stagnant basically. League was introduced to us about five years ago and instantly there was gravitation towards it.

"It's more open, there are more skills involved. The spectators love it because they understand the game more. I just love league.

"Sport in Jamaica is huge. Give us five more years and rugby league will be there. No way did we see ourselves five years ago coming to England and actually playing in a tournament of this size."

Awareness

Jamaica's goal is to qualify for the next World Cup in 2013 - an achievement national coach Dean Thomas believes is possible even though the nation has only six teams at present.

"The game suits the power and pace of the Jamaican athlete. I see rugby league in four or five years really being a strong force and possibly half the squad coming from the leagues in Jamaica," he said.

"We believe that as individuals, these guys are as good as anybody. We need to give them a lot of game awareness and a lot of exposure to the speed of the game over here."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12198_5515445,00.html

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Jamaica's goal is to qualify for the next World Cup in 2013