Humber’s men’s rugby team headed to Vegas

Feb 5, 2013 | Sports

Humber player Phil Boone is a key strength to the team. (Courtesy Humber athletics)

Courtesy of Humber athletics
Humber player Phil Boone is a key strength to the team.

By Samantha Martin

Humber’s men’s rugby team is headed to Las Vegas on Wednesday night to take part in The USA Sevens international rugby tournament for the first time.

The three-day event, which starts Friday, is the largest rugby tournament in North America and is the only stop on this continent for the Sevens World Series.

Director of Humber Athletics, Doug Fox, said the tournament would be a great way for the three-peat Ontario Colleges Athletic Association championship men’s team, to raise awareness throughout North America about the college’s strong rugby program.

Fox told Humber News the tournament would include different age groups such as high school students, clubs, and university students, and international teams.

“This is a unique experience. They have a number of different age groups, they have high school, club, university, they have international competitions with countries involved in it,” said Fox.

“It’s a really big thing for us to start playing universities in the states that are fairly profiled with this,” he said.

Assistant facility and program coordinator of Humber athletics, Rick Bot said sevens rugby is fairly new to Humber and since the OCAA plays a more common 15’s game, the coaches had to cut the team down to seven players.

Bot said the tournament is more of a running game that is played by players who are built with size and speed.

He said the Humber coaches made the right decision on which players would travel to Las Vegas.

“The selection was hard, and the selection the coaches made was great,” said Bot. “The fellas they selected to go down there were built to play the sevens game.”

A total of 12 Humber players will be making the trip in case injuries occur.

Fox said the team has its work cut out for them as Humber’s round-robin play is against strong teams including Guelph, Colorado, and the American Air Force, to name a few.