Rugby growing in popularity...

By Robert Przybylo
BPrzybylo@opubco.com

Received an out-of-the-blue call from Canton football coach Rob Davis on Tuesday, always good to hear from the coach.

But he wanted to talk about rugby. Wait, rugby? Apparently the sport is really picking up steam here in Oklahoma. And who am I to disagree?

Football players who don’t play other sports but need that focus to stay in shape now have another alternative. Powerlifting has really become huge because of it and now rugby is joining that group.

Canton made the Class B football championship, losing to Garber. Davis said rugby was a reason as to why the team had such great success.

Right now there are 10 club rugby teams, with Canton easily the smallest of the schools participating.

Last week was the first week of the season. Here are the standings and here is the schedule:

Standings:

Bixby (1-0)
Canton (1-0)
Mustang (1-0)
The Brethren (1-0)
Union (1-0)
Bartlesville (0-1)
Broken Arrow (0-1)
Edmond Storm (0-1)
Jenks (0-1)
Norman (0-1)

This week’s matches (all Saturday): Bixby at Broken Arrow; The Brethren at Bartlesville; Union at Mustang; Edmond Storm at Norman; Canton at Jenks.