Idaho has seen sport of rugby explode. What’s behind its growth, success in Boise area?

For Eagle High boys coach Brandon Crawford, rugby is — and always will be — the greatest sport in the world.

Crawford fell in love with it while he was on the football team at Idaho State. He would watch the school’s club rugby team practice next to the football team and felt compelled to give it a try. After just a few practices, Crawford was all in — quickly quitting the football team.

“My brother played at BYU in the mid-‘80s when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old, so I got to see it,” Crawford told the Idaho Statesman in an interview. “I actually stepped away from football and started playing rugby ... and it kind of went from there.”

Crawford is now part of a local rugby scene that has exploded in popularity in recent years. Many high schools in the Treasure Valley have a team, and a slew of summer teams have popped up. A press release for last year’s inaugural Girls Rugby High School 7s tournament held at Owyhee High in Meridian noted that Idaho ranked No. 1 in the nation per capita for children playing rugby.

The state is reaping the benefits, too. Eagle High School’s girls team won a national tournament in Wisconsin in May, and the Meridian High team finished third at that event. A Boise-area boys summer team took first place at a national tourney in Tampa, Florida, last year.

The reason for the sport’s success, Crawford said, is the community that rugby fosters. After every match he coaches, Crawford selects a “man of the match” for both participating teams. He also organizes a meal between the two squads so that the athletes can build meaningful relationships off the field.

“I think that’s something that parents see,” Crawford said. “After they just spent 70 minutes beating each other up, they can come together and appreciate the performance from the other team. I think that’s quite appealing to parents.”

The players feel it, too. Each year, coaches say, almost every rugby roster across the Treasure Valley grows in size, and an increasing number of kids want to get in on the action.

Charlie Rich, who graduated from Eagle High in May, started playing the sport during his freshman year to pass the time in between football seasons.

“I definitely chose rugby over football,” said Rich, who’s headed to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, this fall to join Navy’s rugby team. “Having no pads is a lot of fun. I like hitting like that a lot more. I played (offensive line) in football so I like having the ball (in rugby.) Even if I’m not the one scoring, it’s nice to be able to feel like I’m doing a little bit more.”

What is rugby, and how is it played?

Rugby most commonly gets compared to American football, but the rules are much different, Crawford said. And the sport is more than just the word “scrum.”

It is played two ways: either seven on seven or 15 on 15. Sevens is the most commonly played version — and it’s how rugby will be played this summer at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. The main objective is to touch the ball down in the opponent’s in-goal area, or the tryzone, for a score — worth five points. The ball must be touched to the ground for points to be awarded.

“The game is just an addictive game,” Crawford said. “It’s a fun sport. It’s physical, but there is a lot of finesse. There’s a lot of rules that maybe people don’t understand too well, but they see how much fun the kids are having.”

There’s more than one way to score, too. Similar to an extra point in American football, a conversion kick is taken after a try, worth two points. Penalty kicks are worth three points, and drop kicks, which are taken in live play, are also worth three.

When a player is tackled, they have about one second to release the ball, because the ball is fair game once a player is on the ground.

“You play with a bunch of guys, you all catch the ball, and I feel like the brotherhood is a little bit stronger than football,” said Bryson Petzinger, who plays rugby at the University of Utah and graduated from Eagle High School in 2023. “I have a more enjoyable time playing rugby than I do football.”

Why is rugby catching on in Idaho?

Rugby has been popular in Utah for decades, and now that popularity is spreading into Idaho — more specifically the Treasure Valley. Those around it the most say the brotherhood and sisterhood that comes with it is unlike any other sport they’ve played.

A lot of players across the Treasure Valley, like Rich, used American football as their gateway into rugby. The camaraderie that comes with it is different to what you experience with football, Rich said.

“I just love the culture,” Rich said. “I think it’s great when you go and play a team and you beat each other up for an hour and a half, and then you have a man of the match afterwards, and it’s just really friendly. ... I like that a lot better than football.”

Players are even competing outside their school seasons. TOA Rugby, which includes Rich and Petzinger, is one of the top elite summer rugby teams. The team is practicing and training for the Great Northwest Challenge, a national tournament in Missoula, Montana. Boise United, another summer team, went to Florida last year and took first place in an event.

“I do see it growing,” Petzinger said. “The girls especially have just blown up.”

Karlee Allington, who just graduated from Eagle High and was part of the championship in Wisconsin, started playing the sport her freshman year and has witnessed its emergence.

“It has completely grown,” said Allington, who’s headed to Sacred Heart University in Connecticut this fall to continue her rugby career. “When I first started it was just kind of a thing at the school, like just another club. But then over the past four years, it has completely boomed.”

Like Rich, Allington credited the relationships and camaraderie the sport brings. Allington also joked that the best rugby players in Idaho were all “rejects” in other sports, and therefore have extra motivation to give it their all.

Allington and her Eagle High friend, teammate and fellow future Division I player Jordynn LeBeau are holding a youth summer rugby camp together in July at Eagle Middle School. The girls’ main goal is to give back to the community through the sport that provided them with so much, Allington said.

“There wasn’t even rugby when I was in middle school, but now there is a middle school team,” said LeBeau, who will play rugby at Dartmouth. “Now I’ll go to an airport or something, or another crowded area, and see another girl wearing a rugby shirt, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my goodness.’ You never used to see that, so it’s super, super cool.”