down Martinique at the President's Ground in St. Annes, Trinidad, before winning 30-7.

The star of the show for the national squad was Mike Montgomery who scored two tries after Bermuda trailed late in the first half.

"I am very, very proud and honoured to be skipper of the squad,'' said Alvin Harvey, who played the final with a dislocated finger. "We came down here on a mission, were very focussed and did the job.

"We will use this as a stepping stone for the World Cup qualifier against the US Eagles and hope to take Bermuda rugby to another plane.'' An interception after 28 minutes led to Martinique's only points of the final, which only served to sting Bermuda in action.

The new champions drew level within three minutes as a fine move between Scott Correia, Harvey and Dave Conway resulted in the latter going over in the corner.

Phil Heaney failed on an opportunity to give Bermuda the lead going into the interval when his 50-metre penalty attempt hit a post.

Heaney atoned for this miss nine minutes into the second half when he put Bermuda up 10-7 and Martinique knew they would be in for a rough second half when they lost out on a similar penalty situtation.

As the game progressed, Bermuda gradually got on top of Martinique, much to the dissatisfaction of a huge crowd, which was very much anti-Bermuda.

Montgomery gave Bermuda a 15-7 lead in the 57th minute and then he and Richard Raistrick looked to have salted it away after a brilliant move nine minutes later.

Montgomery handed off to Raistrick whose tremendous drive resulted in a line-out five metres from the try line. Raistrick then scored from the line-out but the referee disallowed it.

Destiny would be with Bermuda, however, as they stole the ball from the resultant scrum and Montgomery bowled over the line for a 20-7 lead.

Heaney, who had come off successive missed conversions, complemented the scoring with a penalty with five minutes left. And on the stroke of full time, Bermuda were awarded a penalty try, which Heaney converted for the final score.

The victory completed a triumphant week for the national squad who have suffered through the adversity of losing players through illness and injury.

"We are extremely happy because it has been a tough week. The team has worked hard for five months and deserve this,'' said spokesman Pat McHugh, who added that the camaraderie between the teams was evident after a hard-fought match.

"A nice point to the tournament was that Martinique stayed at the same hotel as us and after the game we all walked back together.'' McHugh wished to single out skipper Harvey for special praise.

"He wanted to be out there for his country,'' said McHugh. "It was a proud moment for Bermuda to see him there receiving the trophy at the presentation.'' In other action yesterday, Trinidad `A' wrapped up third place with a 52-12 drubbing of Guyana and Trinidad `B' finished fifth after beating Venezuela 60-26.

ALVIN HARVEY -- Proud skipper.