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Fallbrook girls rugby team reaches final of NIT

Fallbrook High School's girls rugby team reached the final of the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) held May 19-20 in Elkhart, Indiana.

The Warriors began the eight-team tournament by defeating the Morris club from Morristown, New Jersey, and advanced to the final with a forfeit victory over Sacramento's Amazons. The Warriors lost in the championship match against the United club based in Alpine, Utah (which is in the same county as Orem and Provo).

"We really put everything we could out there," said Fallbrook co-coach Craig Pinnell. "We couldn't finish it,"

The Warriors won all eight Southern California Youth Rugby League regular-season competitions before capturing the championship with a 41-0 victory over the Carson-based South Bay squad in a May 13 game at Orange County Great Park in Irvine (Fallbrook also won the under-14 championship that day with a 48-0 win against South Bay). Fallbrook's only loss prior to the NIT was when the Warriors traveled to Provo for an April 8 friendly against United, who prevailed by a 51-15 score.

Elkhart hosted both the NIT and the Girls High School Club National Championship tournament the same weekend with the Girls High School Club National Championship matches taking place May 20-21. Only the NIT was played through 2015, but USA Rugby created a second tournament for high school teams while continuing to sanction the under-19 NIT for clubs.

Although Fallbrook's team has players from other schools, most of the 2016 team members attended Fallbrook High School and the Warriors played in the Girls High School Club National Championship tournament last year. This year the Warriors competed in the NIT as they had through 2015.

United was given the top seed in the NIT, Amazons was seeded second, and Fallbrook had the third seed.

"It sort of was a good indication of where everybody was," said Pinnell.

The third seed gave Fallbrook a first-round match against the sixth-seeded Morris team. USA rugby limits youth players to 90 minutes each day, so the May 19 games consisted of two 22 1/2-minute halves.

The Warriors began the tournament with a 17-0 win over Morris. The halftime score was 12-0. Julia Haigh scored the first try, Naomi Collin had both the second try and the subsequent conversion kick, and Lilly Durbin scored the second-half try.

"It was a good start all around," said Pinnell, who noted that the Warriors took 22 players to the NIT. "We were able to get all of them in that game. Everyone had an idea of what the level was like."

Not everything went well for Fallbrook in the first game. Breil Bonaguro broke her collarbone, which ended the senior's high school career before the tournament concluded.

"That was a bit of a blow," Pinnell said.

The Fallbrook and Morris squads played in rain during the game. "It started pouring after that," Pinnell said.

The player safety rules include not allowing a return to the field until 20 minutes after visible lightning, so the semifinal against Amazons was delayed by approximately two hours.

"That was an interesting game," Pinnell said.

The referee provided pre-game warnings to Fallbrook and Amazons.

"Before the game she had talked about the dangerous play," Pinnell said. "One of the things was jewelry."

The referee repeated her directive to have jewelry removed when an Amazons player began the game with a chain necklace. The confrontation led to a yellow card for that player, and some of the parents of Amazon players provided verbal dissent of the referee's activity. Some of the Amazon players joined in the criticism of the referee.

On-field infractions were also present. A penalty against Fallbrook led to the Amazons scoring three points from the kick through the goalposts. Fallbrook was later awarded a penalty kick and Collin scored the penalty goal.

The score was still 3-3 late in the first half when the referee ended the game due to dangerous play and referee abuse.

"She decided she was not able to control that game the way it was going, and from a safety point of view, she decided to end the game," Pinnell said. "It ended a situation which could have gone further."

Last year Amazons won the Girls High School Club National Championship tournament championship game against Fallbrook by a 24-15 score.

"They got away with it last year," Pinnell said. "This year was a different set of referees."

Amazons also won the 2010 NIT championship match at Fallbrook's expense. The Warriors won the NIT five years in a row – from 2011 through 2015 – including wins over Amazons in the 2011 and 2014 championship matches. Amazons changed coaches for the 2016 season.

"Not all of them were acting like that," said Pinnell of the Amazons players. "You feel sorry for the ones who actually wanted to play rugby."

Although a regulation high school game is 70 minutes, the final against United utilized 30-minute halves due to the overlap of the two tournaments that day.

United had a 19-7 halftime lead in the final with Arrielle Munsinger scoring Fallbrook's try and Collin kicking the conversion. The final score was 36-7.

"They never stopped coming at us," said Pinnell. "We came up against a team that was a better team. They definitely deserved to win."

Pinnell was pleased that the Warriors were able to apply lessons from the April friendly.

"We improved immensely, but it just wasn't good enough," Pinnell said.

The halftime score of the April 8 match was 26-10.

"We definitely improved a lot," Pinnell said. "But they had also upped their game."

An advantage of the lack of a close score was that Pinnell was able to give his substitutes experience in the final.

"Everybody got an idea of that level," said Pinnell. "It was a very fast game. It was very intense."

The use of substitutes allowed NIT final experience for players who are expected to be a crucial part of the Warriors' future.

"We were able to get the young ones in," Pinnell said.

Fallbrook's squad included 10 seniors. Two other players were exchange students, one from Germany and one from Norway, and also will not be returning to the Warriors next year.

"It will be a big transition next year," Pinnell said.

 

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