JAMAICA’S Reggae Warriors Assistant Coach Jermaine Coleman describes their 2-48 loss to Ireland in their Rugby League World Cup debut yesterday as a learning curve.

Luke Keary had a Man of the Match performance for the Wolfhounds who were in control of the game from start to finish but the Reggae Warriors, through tenacity and fighting spirit, drew large cheers from the 6,000-strong crowd at Headingley Stadium in Leeds, England.

Coleman was upbeat despite the margin of defeat.

“It was always gonna be a learning curve,” he said after the game. “Ireland are full of full-time players, we’ve only got two, so it was always gonna be about that experience and that legacy for us. It’s an opportunity for us to come and show what we’ve got now and show where we are now, and it’s also an opportunity for us to learn and gather some momentum for the next World Cup as well.

“It’s a massive, massive day for us — we’re history-makers. It’s something we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives. And, we’re the first ones [from the Caribbean] to do it [play at the World Cup] so it’s an amazing achievement for where we’re at. It’s an amazing achievement for the group of boys and it’s a real honour for me.”

Coleman was also proud of Chevaughn Bailey, who plays for Duhaney Park Red Sharks in Jamaica. One of only five locally based players in the squad, he played the entire game yesterday.

“He’s a domestic boy; he put in 80 minutes today at this level,” Coleman informed. “He had his first international game — I think that’s an amazing effort for him.”

In spite of the scoreline, Jamaica Captain Ashton Golding had a strong performance, running 114m and completing 55 tackles. Coleman is pleased with this, saying that the defensive effort was what was expected by the coaching staff.

“We spent all week talking about our effort and wanting to earn the respect of the teams around us and the supporters, and to do that we had to work really hard,” he disclosed. “We came up against a really good Ireland team. Ged [Corcoran, the head coach] has got them primed and they were coming up the middle really hard and fast so we knew that was gonna be about a tough effort, and I think we got that from the boys.”

Ireland scored 10 tries but Jamaica got their first points in a World Cup through Keiran Rush who kicked a penalty after the half-time siren, sending them in at 18-2 to loud cheers at the break.

Jamaica, however, had a confident start, with Jacob Ogden calling the video referee into action in the 10th minute when he narrowly failed to collect a grubber kick. But that was as much as they offered offensively, with much of their effort being focused on keeping the Ireland attack at bay. Coleman says he is aware there is work to be done offensively.

“I’m a bit disappointed, if I’m honest with you, with the way that we attacked and the shape that we had,” he said. “It’s not something that we spoke about, and we’ll clear that up in training this week and make sure we do quite a lot of work on it. But again, we asked for effort and we got that in abundance.”

The Jamaicans sit at the bottom of Group C and next face New Zealand, one of the tournament favourites, on Saturday at MKM Stadium in Hull at 1:30 pm Jamaica time. The Kiwis defeated Lebanon 34-12 yesterday.