This is an opinion column by Alex Goff. Well, everyone who knows anything about this was proven right.

The limiting of Varsity HS select teams to only 11th- and 12th-graders, and JV to only 9th- and 10th-graders was an abject failure. USA Rugby's Youth & HS Committee, despite being populated by people who should know better, allowed this rule to stand, with no opportunity for waivers or wiggle room. Was it championed mostly by Youth & HS head Kurt Weaver? Maybe - he supported it strongly in an interview with USA Rugby. Or maybe it was made with good intentions by a discussion of the committee, which is strange because members of the committee ave run all-star tournaments, and have played at a high level. They understand that sometimes a special player needs to play up.

That was the small negative result of this - that excellent sophomores were forced to play on the JV team, despite sometimes being the best player at their position in the state. Having those players suit up in JV helped no one - the players, and the other talented JV players who sat because of someone else forced to be JV, and the opposition didn't get what they should get out of it.

The very talented players need to be challenged. The very good JV-level players need playing time. The opposition need good competition. By forcing an admittedly small number of excellent sophomores to play in JV, USA Rugby hurt the all-star competitions.

But that's not the worst thing. Even though it's the Youth & HS Committee overstepping its bounds and making decisions about high performance player development and identification, it's not the worst thing. Even though this all-star season, which is about merit, pure and simple, isn't the worst thing.

The worst thing is that, the USA Rugby Youth & HS Committee is charged, more than anything, with promoting participation in the game. Now while the all-star tournaments are about the best players, it also needs to be about providing opportunities for play - that's why there are five of these events. That's why USA Rugby changed the name to Regional Cup Tournaments (to take away that pesky "All-Star" descriptor).

And the Varsity/JV rule destroyed participation from girls teams. Just destroyed it. This past weekend, in three all-star tournaments, there were nine girls JV teams in action, combined. That's a bit of a stretch to say nine, by the way, because we didn't see any scored recorded from the Rocky Mountain Challenge, and reports are that in some games the teams played 10-a-side.

There were 15 girls varsity teams, in three tournaments. So the number of girls teams was 23. There were 28 boys JV teams - more than girls Varsity and JV combined.

Why? One source told us it was chiefly because of the prohibition of younger players playing in varsity teams. In addition, JV teams suffered by not being able to have juniors who still needed some seasoning. There were teams ready to play in the South - South Carolina and North Carolina - but they needed to be allowed to put younger players on their squads.

And if teams were able to take the field, they were like the Capital/Vermont/Maryland Varsity team in the Northeast, and or the Northeast Combined JV team in the same tournament. Not to take anything away from the players (who tried hard and showed their commitment by showing up), or the coaches and managers (who, lord knows, did everything they could), but that kind of combo side was destined to struggle. They went 1-5.

I know something about this. Aside from being a rugby journalist who has been covering grassroots and elite-level rugby since the mid-1990s, I have also been involved in all-star HS rugby. I kick-started the all-star tournament that became the Great Northwest Challenge. I organized and managed girls select sides through the 2000s. I coached a girls HS team, and, off the top of my head, can name Kelsi Stockert, Mallory Salazar, Marion Foor, Mary Ordos, Rebecca Cunningham, Megan Thompson, and Arayel Hillman as sophomores or freshmen who performed brilliantly for Washington state or Pacific Northwest all-star teams - no ill effects, and those teams might not have played had those youngsters (and others from other teams) not been able to play.

So I have developed players, worked with teams and tournaments - I know it's an artificial division to split teams based on grade. I know that Megan Thompson was on the USA U19 team as a sophomore, and was vice captain. I know that Dominic Mara was the USA Boys U19 captain at 16. His teammate, Todd Clever, was a freshman.

And I also know that inspiring participation is a full-time concern, and if a rule means entire tams have to sit down, then you need to look at that rule. Now.

It's more than one or two names here and there. We now know that entire teams of players who wanted to play and test themselves and participate were denied because of a misguided rule that no one asked for.