Warrior girls third in Fullerton Youth Rugby International Tournament

Fallbrook High School's girls rugby club settled for third place in the March 14-15 Fullerton Youth Rugby International Tournament which was played on the field across from Ladera Vista Junior High School.

"Not as successful as we would have liked," said Fallbrook co-coach Craig Pinnell.

Fallbrook's girls had won the previous five Fullerton tournament championships. Pinnell noted that the Warriors play in the tournament not primarily for the trophy but to determine what preparations need to be made for the Southern California Youth Rugby League season and USA Rugby's under-19 National Invitational Tournament, which has been won by the Warriors in each of the past four years.

"It gives us an idea of where we are," Pinnell said.

"From a coaching point of view that is a good thing that they have something to work on," Pinnell said. "They now have goals that they can physically attain."

Both of Fallbrook's losses were to Northern California teams, and the Warriors were victorious against Canadian opposition. "It's our big tournament where we can actually play against higher-skilled teams," Pinnell said. "We use it as a step-builder."

The tournament also gave Fallbrook an assessment of top-level opposition. "Other teams are getting quicker," Pinnell said.

The March 14 pool play matches consisted of 23-minute games which were not divided into halves, as USA Rugby limits the number of minutes a youth team can play in one day.

"We don't really have a lot of advantage," Pinnell said of the shorter games. "If we don't strike first there isn't much time."

High school regulation games consist of 35-minute halves. "We prefer longer games, but it doesn't take away from what we should have done," Pinnell said.

"We didn't execute well," Pinnell said. "Our defensive efforts and execution just wasn't right."

Fallbrook began the tournament with a 41-0 victory over the Desert Sands club based in La Quinta. In the next pool play match, Danville, the eventual tournament champion, defeated Fallbrook by a 14-0 margin.

"Danville are bigger and they're a very fast team. They had some quick and strong runners in their back line," Pinnell said.

Danville also exposed some flaws in the Fallbrook play. "We had issues with our defense," Pinnell said.

On offense the transition between forwards and backs also became one of Pinnell's targeted areas of improvement. "We for some reason couldn't get our handling right," he said.

The Warriors concluded pool play with a 12-0 win against Abbotsford (British Columbia).

The March 15 games consisted of two 15-minute halves. As the second-place team in Pool B, Fallbrook opened play that day against the first-place team from Pool A. Pleasanton took a 5-3 victory over the Warriors. "They just didn't get going," Pinnell said of the Warriors. "We didn't fire again in that game."

Fullerton, the second-place team in Pool A, had no better success in its match against Danville, losing by a 26-7 margin.

The third-place match between Fallbrook and Fullerton ended with the Warriors on the desired end of the 21-0 score, giving the Warriors a non-league victory over a Southern California Youth Rugby League opponent as well as third place.

"All in all it ended appropriately," Pinnell said.

The all-tournament team selected the players deemed to have been the best at each position. Lilly Durbin was given all-tournament fullback honors and Michel Navarro was the all-tournament flank.