Bermuda have named a 13-man squad for the Rugby Americas North Sevens tournament in the Turks & Caicos starting on Saturday.

Having cast his eye over perspective players in regular training sessions, a sevens tournament at the National Sports Centre and internal squad matches over the past month coach Jamie Barnwell has finally whittled down his original 40-man squad down to a final selection.

Stephan Smit has been appointed captain with Dan Cole serving as vice-captain. The trio of Cameron De Ste Croix, Rory O’Kelly-Lynch and Darren Klien are in line to make their debuts for the team, while Jamie Baum, Alex Brown, Tashon De Silva,, Mikey Dill, Alex Doyling, Jahniko Francis, Mike Kelley and David Lunn make up the rest of the final squad.

Bermuda have been drawn in pool C alongside Guyana and Belize for the tournament which marks the return to international competition for the region — with nine competing nations battling for qualification to the World Rugby Sevens Challenger Series next year.

The winner of that tournament, with dates and location yet to be announced by World Rugby, will also clinch the sixteenth and final spot on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Jamaica and Mexico, who will headline pools A and B respectively, enter the tournament as favourites to meet in the final. Pool A also consists of the hosts Turks & Caicos and British Virgin Islands, while pool B will also be contested by Curaçao and Barbados.

Meanwhile, Bermuda, who face Guyana in their opening encounter, will also be confident at least of advancing from pool C, which includes international sevens debutants Belize.

On the first day of competition will see each country play against their respective pool opponents to decide who will advance to the cup competition on day two.

The top two teams in each pool will advance into the cup competition on the second day. For the Cup competition, the six nations that advance will be reseeded into two pools of three and play against each of their pool opponents in their first two games on Sunday.

After those two rounds, the top-seeded nation in each pool will advance to the Cup Final, while the two second-place teams will play for bronze and the two third-place teams will play in the fifth and sixth-place match.