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Fallbrook Girls Rugby U18s finish 5th at LA Invitational 7s

Controversy surrounded a quarterfinal match involving the Fallbrook Girls Rugby Club's U18 7s team and South Bay High School Spartans Friday, Feb. 28, at the first-ever Los Angeles Invitations 7s tournament in Irvine.

The Warriors were playing their fourth game of the day in the High School Girls Open Division and lined up to play against South Bay's Open Team. Instead, South Bay trotted out several, if not all of their High School Elite Division players for the game, which included Elite players from Utah teams.

The Warriors, who haven't played in the 7s format for about six months, lost the match by two scores to the Spartans and were bumped down to the fifth-place game Saturday.

The Warriors opened the pool play portion of the tournament earlier in the morning with a forfeit win over Fullerton High School who dropped out of the tournament a day earlier, then easily handled the Rancho Bernardo High School Mustangs and made quick work of South Davis High School to win the pool.

That win sent them into the match with South Bay that caused all of the controversy and saw a couple of Warriors banged up with injuries in the hotly contested match.

The Warriors were playing without sophomore Tiahna Padilla who was playing on loan with Atlantis in the Elite Division. Padilla's team, consisting of players from all over the United States, lost in Saturday's finals to South Bay's Elite team, the same lineup that beat the Warriors a day earlier.

Meanwhile, South Bay's Open Team was eliminated in the semifinals, and the Warriors took on Rocky Mountain Academy in the fifth-place game at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson Saturday, Feb. 29.

The Warriors controlled the majority of the match and came away with the win.

Fallbrook Girls Rugby Club's U16 team also played in the tournament and won their final game against the San Diego High School Aztecs. It was unclear at press time which place they finished in the tournament.

The Warriors will play next at Rancho Bernardo High School March 14, to begin the Southern California Youth Rugby Spring Club season.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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