USA Rugby Announces Change in Under-20 Women’s National Team Eligibility

from USA Rugby:

BOULDER, Colo. – USA Rugby has announced changes to its age eligibility requirements pertaining to the Under-20 Women’s National Team for the 2009/2010 season.

To be eligible for the Women Under-20’s squad for the upcoming season players must be under 20 years old on September 1, 2009. This is a change to the prior date of January 1, 2010.

“Both the England and Wales Under-20 programs use the September 1 date and this change will put us on the same page as those programs,” said USA Under-20 Women’s Coach Bryn Chivers. “Furthermore, there is another benefit to the change as we also have the opportunity to align the eligibility criteria for the Territorial Union Under-19 programs with the Girls’ Under-19 National Championships.”

Asked about the eligibility change Alex Williams, the Women’s High Performance Director added, “While the final match highlighted the attention England has been putting into their Under-20 program, our U-20s are coming off an overall successful Nations Cup and it’s important for us to use the same eligibility criteria as the team ahead of us and the teams that are now chasing us.”

For more information on the Women’s Under-20s, please visit www.usarugby.org/goto/womens_u20 or contact Bryn Chivers.