GRR: Southern California
In 2014 two Southern California clubs finished high in the National Invitational Championship, with the San Diego Mustangs taking 4th and Santa Monica taking 2nd.
This year, two Southern California teams from the same two regions are looking like they might be ready to enjoy a good season … but they’re two different teams.
It’s tempting to just talk about Fallbrook in SoCal, but there’s a whole tier of U18 girls teams benefiting from playing the best team in the nation. South Bay is one of them. The Spartans spent the first three years of existence gaining traction in the community with 7s, then 10s, 12s, and finally 15s in 2014. Last year, South Bay advanced to the SoCal final, against Fallbrook.
Fallbrook has claimed three trophies so far this season, taking their rivalry shield from Torrey Pines (twice), the SoCal Varsity Red championship, and, this past Sunday, the Fullerton International Tournament.
There’s still rugby to be played, of course, but the Fallbrook boys have performed admirably so far.
Fallbrook retained the Titan Shield and won the Varsity Red Division in Southern California with a snappily-taken 33-20 defeat of Torrey Pines in the final Saturday night.
The win capped off a six-game win streak following their opening-week loss to Cathedral Catholic December 19.
The first half of the Southern California Boys HS season will be over Saturday afternoon after Fallbrook and Torrey Pines face off for the Varsity Red championship.
This is the conference that was SoCal Youth Rugby’s foray into a school-district-specific single-school league.