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Warrior girls rugby wins fifth national title

Fallbrook High School's girls rugby club returned from USA Rugby's under-19 National Invitational Tournament with the Warriors' fifth consecutive national championship.

The Warriors played three matches at Founders Field in Pittsburgh, Penn., and outscored their opposition by a combined margin of 120-5 during the May 16-17 tournament.

"It was really nice to see the girls step up and finish the weekend off," said Fallbrook co-coach Craig Pinnell.

The National Invitational Tournament championship gave Fallbrook five National Invitational Tournament titles, six Southern California Youth Rugby under-18 championships, and five Fullerton Youth Rugby Invitational Tournament championships in the past six seasons. The Warriors lost to the Sacramento-based Amazon team in the 2010 National Invitational Tournament championship game, which to date is Fallbrook's last defeat in that tournament. Fallbrook won the Fullerton tournament each year from 2010 to 2014, but this year the Warriors finished third in the March tournament and lost to eventual champion Danville by a 14-0 score and to Pleasanton by a 5-3 margin. The losses to the two Northern California teams allowed Pinnell to target areas of improvement.

The losses also gave Fallbrook the third seed in the National Invitational Tournament. Danville was seeded second, so in the absence of first-round upsets the Warriors and Oaks would face each other in the semifinals. "We had our sights set on the semifinal match," Pinnell said.

"We talked about that game and about how we needed to improve," Pinnell said. "The girls really worked hard and put in place all of the structure."

Fallbrook had to win its first-round match against sixth-seeded St. Joseph Academy, an all-girls Catholic school in Cleveland which won the Midwest championship, in order to advance to the semifinals. "We didn't really know much about them," Pinnell said.

What the team did know was that if they utilized the skills they needed to defeat Danville and the championship match opponent the Warriors would likely be successful against St. Joseph. "That was our chance to get them to gel," Pinnell said. "It really worked out well."

The first-round and semifinal matches were both played May 16. Due to a USA Rugby rule limiting the number of minutes in a day a youth team can play, the first two games utilized 22-minute halves. Fallbrook defeated the Jaguars by a 41-0 margin.

Pinnell believes that the Warriors gained more than just a berth in the semifinals. "I think the second game what really showed is that their confidence was really high. They brought in a really confident state of mind and there was nothing that was going to stop them no matter what," he said.

That included a Danville try in the first minute to give the Oaks a 5-0 lead. "It didn't bother them," Pinnell said.

Danville had kicked off to Fallbrook. "We didn't catch it cleanly and it bounced," Pinnell said.

The Oaks recovered the ball. "It was a lucky bounce for them," Pinnell said.

The Warriors didn't let one mistake turn into multiple gaffes. "No one panicked. They remained calm. They just took the ball back and started again," Pinnell said. "They put on the points after that. Everything they did was executed perfectly."

Danville's strengths were scrum and set plays. "We were beating them in the scrum, and everything that we did was better than Danville on that day," Pinnell said.

Fallbrook's first try required significant effort. "We had a long ruck just on the try line. We couldn't get it over," Pinnell said.

That was solved when flanker Emma Workman dove over the ruck and over the try line. Alex Beckett was successful on the conversion kick to give Fallbrook a 7-5 lead.

Fallbrook scored again when inside center Miriam Friebe picked up a loose ball and ran it across the field for a try. Beckett's conversion kick created a 14-5 score which remained through the halftime whistle.

"They were just feeling pumped up and they knew they could go the distance," Pinnell said.

The second-half scoring began when Hannah Savin scored a try, although the conversion was unsuccessful. Fallbrook's forwards were able to create space for fullback Lilly Durbin to score the Warriors' final three tries. "By that point the forwards were really doing well," Pinnell said. "It was just really good execution."

Although the conversion on the fourth try was not successful, Durbin kicked the conversion for the fifth try and Beckett added two points following the sixth try.

The conversion kick is taken from where the try was scored, so the kicker may not have a suitable angle. Although many high school rugby fields which were designed as football stadiums utilize available dimensions, a regulation rugby field is 100 meters by 70 meters and Founders Field has such a length and width. The Warriors hold the philosophy that five points are better than none and utilize the outside of the pitch when they can. "We like running the ball and going wide as much as possible," Pinnell said.

Fallbrook's defense also provided significant contributions. "It was brilliant. They came up very fast," Pinnell said.

"They put so much pressure," Pinnell said of the Fallbrook defense. "They were taking Danville backwards."

The final score was 38-5. "They played their game and they played it very, very well," Pinnell said.

The Warriors thus avenged one of their losses during the season. "They just realized that that was the huge accomplishment that they had been working for," Pinnell said. "They turned their weaknesses into strengths."

The coaching staff didn't provide many instructions once the game began. "They were doing a lot of playing the game by themselves on the field," Pinnell said. "They were confident that they could do what they needed to do on the field."

Officially Pinnell and his wife, Marin, are co-coaches. Their daughter, Gwyndolynn, was born on April 21, and Marin Pinnell has taken a minor role this year. Fallbrook senior Richelle Stephens injured her knee in a February practice and played in only two games this year while taking over some of Marin Pinnell's coaching duties. Stephens did not play in the National Invitational Tournament, but was one of the coaches.

Divine Savior Holy Angels, an all-girls Catholic school in Milwaukee, had been the top-seeded team, but fourth-seeded Kent defeated the Dashers in the semifinals. Fallbrook thus faced the Crusaders in the May 17 championship match.

Kent is based in Covington, Wash., which is in the same county as Seattle. That gave the Crusaders a potential advantage a few hours before the start of the final. "We woke up to pouring rain," Craig Pinnell said.

The Warriors, who had not previously played in rain this year, knew that a Washington team would have more experience with rainfall conditions. Fallbrook had also been aware that rain on the East Coast was a possibility. The final week of practice included balls being dropped into buckets of water and then used to give the girls experience with handling wet balls.

Kent also had bigger players, so in wet conditions which limited speed advantages the Crusaders would have the strength advantage. "We weren't sure how that was going to affect our type of game," Pinnell said.

The championship match had an 11 a.m. (Eastern time) start. "It actually stopped raining, although the field was pretty wet," Pinnell said.

Rain fell sporadically during the game. "The field was very wet, although not muddy," Pinnell said. "It was drained pretty well."

The lack of mud or puddles allowed Fallbrook to utilize the outside. "We needed to really focus on getting the handling right," Pinnell said. "The key was going to be the handling."

The final consisted of 30-minute halves. Two tries by Michel Navarro, including Savin's conversion on the second try, and a try by Durbin gave Fallbrook a 17-0 halftime lead. "Coming into halftime everybody was pretty confident and happy with the way it was going," Pinnell said.

During halftime Pinnell told the players that the second half would be their final 30 minutes on the field as a group. The large lead meant that many starters were rested in the second half and Fallbrook's substitutes received some experience in a championship game. "Everybody got some game time and did very well," Pinnell said.

Workman and Navarro scored two tries apiece in the second half. "They stepped up and they took the game in their hands and they went for it," Pinnell said.

Savin converted one of Workman's tries and Kayla Canett converted one of Navarro's second-half tries.

Navarro thus had four tries during the game. "She just broke through tackles and scored," Pinnell said.

The score was 41-0 when the final whistle blew. "It's just really neat to see them finishing off like that," Pinnell said. "It was something they wanted to achieve."

In 2013, Fallbrook faced Kent in the final and prevailed by a 55-10 score. Fallbrook won a 22-3 semifinal game against Kent in 2014 to set up a championship match with the Amazons which ended as a 27-17 Warriors victory.

Fallbrook's 59-5 victory over Lakewood (Ohio) in the final gave the Warriors the 2012 championship. The Warriors' 60-0 victory over the Amazons in the 2011 title match gave Fallbrook its first national championship. The Amazons won the 2010 final by a 32-10 score.

Navarro was chosen as the 2015 tournament's Most Valuable Forward and Canett received recognition as the Most Valuable Back.

The Fallbrook team included nine seniors. "Just a great way to finish off their season and their careers," Pinnell said. "They had worked really hard to achieve that goal."

 

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