Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Defending champions Jamaica will leave the island today for the Cayman Islands to participate in this year's Caribbean Rugby Women's championships (CRW).

The Jamaican contingent consists of 26 players and four officials.

The team will face-off in the three-nation tournament against The Cayman Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.

Victor Hyde, coach of the team, said he is very confident that the team will retain the title.

"I am very confident," said Hyde who was also the coach of the Jamaica's Under-19 team, which recently qualified for next year's Rugby World Championships, which will be held in Nigeria in April.

Hyde added: "However, knowing that we are the defending champions going into this championships, our aim is to maintain our focus and not take any of these teams too lightly.

"We have prepared ourselves mentally and physically for this tournament because we know that all the other teams in the competition are going to be coming at us real hard."

Hyde added: "Even though we are facing a lot of injury problems to some of our key players, including our captain Gem Edwards, we still believe that we have what it takes to go all the way because I know that everyone is going to play a supportive role on this team."