East Idaho’s Rugby Rendezvous was, in Bingham United boys coach Ryan Woodland’s opinion, a success - 11 high school boys teams and three high school girls teams came out to the pre-season event to see where they stand against their competition and see where to go from here.

“It’s just an opportunity to kind of knock the rust off the wheels and give everyone their first game, especially the rookies,” Woodland said.

Although it is a tournament, score wasn’t kept. For all the teams in attendance, this was their first few games of the season. Many of the coaches felt that not keeping score lowered the pressure on the new players and young teams.

“We tried to match up teams that we won’t play in our regular season to build that camaraderie,” Woodland said. “In this part of the country, that’s the one thing that’s lacking - the girls program. It would be great to grow the girl’s program in East Idaho. We’re trying; it just takes time.”

Bingham United, Idaho Falls, and Portneuf girls teams attended and played one another. Idaho Falls and Portneuf have been established teams for a few years. However, this is Bingham United’s first year and for all the players on the team, the first game played. 40 girls approached Bingham United about playing and the club couldn’t say no to that.

“They did tremendously well for just talking about it at practice and then taking it from their head and putting it into the game situation,” Bingham United girls coach Mick Coward said. “That was the real benefit of [the scrimmages.] They can see how everything in practice fits into the game.”

For Coward and the other coaches, the 30 minute matches at the Rendezvous were enough time to let the players compete at the level they could while making sure the teams had a good understanding of the rules of rugby.

The teams will enter their regular seasons within the next couple weeks.