Covid has certainly impacted the participation numbers in girls’ high school rugby, but the decline doesn’t begin with the pandemic. For years, leagues across the country have been adjusting their 15s seasons to accommodate shrinking rosters, offering 7s, 10s, 12s to keep teams active. Even teams with 15s legacies have become comfortable in shorter versions of the game – and from a numbers perspective, that’s a problem. There is arguably one program that has made that shift from 15s to exclusively 7s and kept numbers high: Summit, Colo. Fifteens is crucial to the health of the sport . . .
