The West Indies rugby team, whose backbone is made up of Bermudian players, have reacted with “disappointment” to news they will not be taking part in the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens tournament.

The West Indies, who were captained by Bobby Hurdle and had Danny McGavern and Jon Cassidy in their ranks when they made their debut at last year's event, were hoping to be invited back for the tournament in March.

However, despite lobbying the International Rugby Board (IRB) last week, their pleas fell on deaf ears with the likes of Russia and Sri Lanka being invited instead.

As an alternative, the West Indies, who recently returned from Sevens tournaments in Chile and Argentina, are looking at taking part in an International Tens event in Malaysia later this year.

Peter Borland, the Bermuda-based president of the West Indies Rugby Union, said: “We went to the IRB and asked them whether we would be receiving an invitation and we were told we wouldn't which is quite disappointing to be perfectly honest.

“As this is a World Series Sevens event they do have some say in who participates. It is an invitational event, we realise that, and they do have so many spots for the local Asian teams.

“But after our strong showing last year when we got to the Bowl finals and having been verbally told we would have an invite for this year, it was very disappointing that we did not.”

Borland said he thought the West Indies exploits in South America, where they reached the semi-finals of the Bowl in both Chile and Argentina, would have sealed their place in the Far East.

“Following on from our very successful South American showing it is doubly disappointing,” he said. “Within the Pan American region the West Indies are now ranked fourth in sevens, only behind the USA, Canada and Argentina.

“We have made enquiries why we were omitted but generally I think it was that there were not enough spots for everybody and it is on a rotational basis.”

Borland said the West Indies' calendar of events would now have to be rescheduled.

“We had relied on the two South American events, the Hong Kong Sevens and the Cayman Sevens tournament which is in July I believe,” he said. “That was basically going to be our sixth month programme.

“We are looking at the Malaysian Tens now which is in the coming months. That is just a possibility. We received an invite last year but we couldn't take it up because of the Hong Kong Sevens.

“If we don't get to either of those two tournaments (Cayman or Malaysia) we may look to go to to the UK. At the end of May they have a number of Sevens events. We were at Henley a number of years ago and we may try and pick the ball up there and go with that one.”

Although a fledgling Union, Borland said the West Indies had progressed rapidly as a team.

“As I keep saying we are disappointed because we had got the squad gelling quite nicely,” he said. “I am sure the teams that attend (Hong Kong) will give a good account of themselves.

“I just feel that after our performance in South America it would have been a nice carry over to go to Hong Kong 12 months after we had done so well to see how well we would do again.”

A spokeswoman for the IRB said the West Indies had “definitely not” been snubbed.

“Throughout the series there are about 40 teams who want to compete and obviously demand to go to Hong Kong is higher because of the name it has,” she said.

“We rotate the invitations to the smaller unions. The West Indies were at Hong Kong last year, Chile and Argentina this year and those that will get to go to Hong Kong this year will be the likes of the Russias and Sri Lankas.”