Photos: Alexander Taylor (from Yukon HS match)
The Bixby girls’ rugby team has been in operation for approximately a year, and on Saturday, the Oklahoma side won its first 15s match – 27-5 against Edmond – and produced the Canterbury High School Player of the Week.
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Coach Chris Rayner joined Bixby as an assistant coach for the boys’ team, which began in 2006. During a training session last year, two girls showed up and wanted to start their own team.
“We didn’t think much of it and said, ‘If you can get 20 girls, then we’ll have a practice next Tuesday,” Rayner recalled.
The girls met that challenge – the first of many – and Rayner shifted coaching roles. During that inaugural spring season, Bixby played established teams like state champion Broken Arrow and Yukon, and played some tournament ball. Rayner was optimistic for the fall, but only six of the 17 potential veterans returned. The players recruited, requested an earlier start to pre-season, and began three-per-week training sessions in the New Year.
Although Bixby regrouped, the season didn’t start so well. Yukon served Bixby a 45-0 loss on Feb. 18.
“Besides the six [returning] starters, everyone was playing in their first rugby games,” Rayner said. “It was a shock, that if they didn’t implement what we had been harping on at practice, then the game didn’t go well. So we started the [following] week with film of the Yukon game and identified every situation that needed work – whether line speed on defense or not spreading the field on defense, ball-handling skills or the 10 not transferring the ball to the backs fast enough.”
Bixby was slated to play Edmond the following weekend, and with one training session dedicated to film, the players had two more practices to fix the mistakes made against Yukon.
“I was a little apprehensive,” Rayner confessed. “Edmond had only lost to Yukon by 10 points, and we lost to Yukon by 45. I knew it was going to be a tough game and thought it was going to be a game of attrition.”
Ten minutes went by and then outside center Zoe Townsell started to find gaps in the defense, “danced and weaved like she does,” and broke through for a 50-meter try.
“And that started things rolling,” Rayner said. “You could tell in their faces that they knew they could do this – go down the pitch and score a try – and I saw an overall turn from that.”
Captain and hooker Allison Lindsey did an excellent job leading her team, and flyhalf Whitley Cary funneled her energies into moving the ball quickly so the wide attack could flourish. Cary also had a good day off the boot.
Fullback Karsen Brown, having returned from a high-tackle yellow card, made her fresh legs count with a 60-meter try. After a well worked forwards’ score, flanker Nina Fox followed with a try. Townsell then added her second try on the day.
“You would think that the Lady of the Match would be the top try-scorer, but Val [Osuna] really surprised me – and I say that in the best way possible,” Rayner said of the Canterbury High School Player of the Week. “She was timid before, but she was taught to run up the first A gap; come up hard and flat on defense; support in the rucks; keep the feet going after the tackle. It was those little things that added up to her making the most tackles in the game, most line-breaks off the A channel. And her rucking – she was in one of every three rucks, which is fantastic.”
The previous week’s practices were dense with rugby lessons, and Osuna retained them and applied them to a team win. That connection between training and game time resonated with many of the players.
“They were pretty pleased with themselves,” Rayner said. “Last year we went to a tournament and won our first game, but we didn’t call it an official win because we had 3-4 girls from Broken Arrow. … After [Saturday’s] game, they realized, ‘If we do the things we’ve been taught, then we can actually win.’ As a coach, you love when that sinks in for players and they get the whole picture.”
Bixby will play Edmond again and must still face Broken Arrow. The league season is only three games long, and then state championships follow, so Rayner is busy trying to fill in the schedule with friendlies and tournaments. The Hooligans Cup will bring KC United (Mo.) and Flatirons Rugby Academy (Colo.) to join the Oklahoma teams, and Bixby is hoping to play a combined Texas squad from the Dallas Fort Worth area.
“To get these girls hooked on rugby and expand the sport, we need exposure and to be playing constantly and to have fans coming constantly,” Rayner said. “I grew up playing in Scotland. There was girls’ rugby but it wasn’t prevalent. My big thing is girl empowerment, that they can do anything a guy can do. Play your heart out for 70 minutes and win. … I didn’t grow up with sisters, so it’s nice to foster a relationship with these girls and let them know that they can do anything they put their minds to.”
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