Shelley teen excels at rugby, has Olympic hopes - East Idaho News
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Shelley teen excels at rugby, has Olympic hopes

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IDAHO FALLS — It took one Shelley woman less than a year to excel in the high-contact sport of rugby.

A friend and family member introduced Meg Gold, 18, to the sport in 2016. Her passion for the sport was immediate.

“I showed up to practice and I loved it, and here I am,” Gold said.

Rugby is a mixture of the sports soccer and football, minus the padding. Fifteen players are needed on each team, and it’s played with an oval-shaped ball that can be kicked, carried or passed.

“If there’s a penalty or if there’s a mishap on the field, the referee is the only one that can stop the game,” Gold said.

Gold said compared to men’s rugby, women’s rugby requires a more flare and athleticism, and less brute force.

“Men’s rugby is just two fists punching at each other the whole time. Women’s rugby is a lot more strategy. It’s that finesse,” Gold said. “The best-of-the-best have the best passes, the best kick. It’s the extra skills beyond that physicality.”

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Meg and Shelley players after state competition in May 2016 | Courtesy Camille Gold

Gold has played all over the nation and throughout the region in states like Washington, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Idaho.

She currently plays with the Idaho Falls Rush Rugby girls team, and this summer she will be playing with the Utah Lions. Gold will be play with the Lions in her first international competition this July.

Camille Gold said her daughter has always played any sport that involved a ball, but she seemed born to play rugby.

“She’s really just taken off and just excelled with this sport,” Camille Gold said. “On her first game she just went out there and just killed it. We were like, ‘Holy cow, she’s really good!’”

In March, Gold signed on to play Rugby at Lindenwood University, a private school in St. Charles, Missouri. It’s the second in the nation for Division 1 elite women’s rugby. (Pennsylvania State University ranks No. 1.)

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Meg Gold in action on the rugby field. | Courtesy Camille Gold

“It’s pretty much amazing and mind blowing to me still that I got a scholarship to Lindenwood,” Gold said. “I worked hard. The great thing about rugby is if you play hard, having that tenacity … can set you apart from other players.”

Camille Gold says she doesn’t know how far Meg will go, but her future is bright.

“She has aspirations to be an Olympian in Tokyo in 2020, and we’re not going to smash that dream. After watching the year she’s had, anything’s possible,” Camille Gold said.

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