Guam Adds Tackle Rugby for Girls

I have a soft spot for Guam in my heart as I lived there when I was younger. An absolutely beautifiul island that I hope to visit again someday. I wish I had found rugby there as a teenager!

from Kuam.com:

This year’s girl’s high school rugby season will now offer tackle rugby to those that want to participate. The Guam Rugby Football Union together with the IIAAG will implement the new program in 2012 season but will not replace the flag version but offer it as an alternative. Since the sport made its way to the island in 1999 it has flourished to 11 of the island’s schools with about 275 student-athletes taking part in the sport.

The tackle version of the sport will help build the women’s national team program and get our girls up to par with schools that already play tackle rugby in the states. The girl’s game has grown from 10 a side to now 12 a side with scrums and line outs since 2009. The offer of a tackle version of the game allows those girls’s who are eager for the physical confrontation of the sport to leave the flag version of the game and take their abilities to the tackle pitch.

According to the IRB, there are 150,000 women and girls playing Rugby around the world with the numbers increasing. Our local players have took their game to the next level playing for universities such as Penn State, Arizona, Army and Navy and have also represented the island very well in international competition in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, China and Portugal.

On the women’s side our national team has posted wins against Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Norway where nations count their populations in the millions rather than the thousands.