It was a baptism of fire for Bermuda in their first appearance in the rugby sevens competition at the Junior Pan American Games on Saturday.

Facing the might of Argentina, who are ranked fourth in the world at under-20 level, Bermuda’s inexperienced squad fought hard in their opening group match but the gap in quality told with the Pumas winning the encounter 51-7.

Argentina took the lead in the opening 30 seconds of the game and they ran in nine tries. But, to their credit, Bermuda stayed committed and earned a consolation try through Aiden Kendall, one of the more experienced members of the team.

However, that game came at a cost when Kwame Naylor, a member of the squad’s leadership group, picked up an injury that ruled him out of the rest of the tournament much to the disappointment of his father Chris, coach of the team.

“The Argentina game was costly as we lost Kwame with an injury,” Naylor said.

“It’s a shame we lost him as he is our biggest attacking threat but he took a head to the hip and had some muscle spasms, so he was unable to play any part in our later matches.

“We were not expecting much from the game and credit must go to the boys who stepped up, but I was really pleased with Aiden Kendall’s performance and he is the highest points scorer against Argentina after scoring one of only two tries against them and adding a conversion.”

Knowing their toughest opponents in the group were out of the way early, Bermuda moved on to face host nation Paraguay, who were backed by some passionate local supporters.

The game was far closer than the opener but Bermuda struggled to get a foothold in the game, conceding four tries without reply in a 24-0 defeat, and the performance more than the result disappointed Naylor.

“We were disappointed with our performance against Paraguay,” he said.

“They were better than us but we felt that we just didn’t play to our best.”

Their final group game came against Trinidad & Tobago and Luke Summers and Jayson Simons both crossed the try line for Bermuda as they lost 28-12 to their Caribbean opponents. But Bermuda were left questioning some referee decisions after the official sent three players to the sin bin.

“That was our best performance of the day and Aiden Kendall again led from the front,” Naylor said.

“But we were stung by the referee as we had three guys sent to the bin during the course of the 14 minutes. It’s hard enough with seven men on the pitch but it’s tough when you play for six minutes with only six on the park. Sometimes decisions go for you and sometimes against you.”

The three defeats mean that Bermuda finished bottom of their group and will play on Sunday for a place between fifth and eighth alongside Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Mexico in an attempt to avoid the wooden spoon.

Naylor is hopeful that with some recovery time, his side may be able to pick up a result or two on the second day of competition.

“It was a tough first day and we move on to tomorrow,” Naylor said.

“Hopefully things will improve and we can get a result. We’re playing Mexico first up and we’ll see how we go, but the boys are still in great spirits and thankful for the opportunity and the experience.”