Welcome to the Home of Washington Youth Rugby

Pacific Coast U19 Women Tryouts!
Starfire Sports Complex Sept 21
See here for details

Congratulations our State Champions:
Chuckanut Boys
Kent Girls

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Lavalla and Pittman play in NA4
Former Budd Bay captain Scott Lavalla and former Chuckanut star Shawn Pittman, both veterans of the USA U19 and U20 teams, helped lead the West Coast Falcons to second place in the North American 4.

The NA4 is a cross-border competition featuring the best players from Canada and the USA.

See photo of Scott post-game here
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Washington Boys Win Tournament
See Details Here

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Washington Girls Win Tournament
Photo Gallery Here
The Washington U19 girls team won the All-Star tournament held in Portland June 28-29, defeating Northern California in the process.

Below is the report from interim coach Darryl Chantry.

Game 1 – Oregon B   22-0 Washington
Trys:  Maddy Glainyk, Mallory Salazar, Ellie Linn, Emily Heffner
Conversions: Ellie Linn
Missed Tackles:  23 missed Tackles
Possession: 75% Washington 

A win, but that is a reflection on the caliber of the opposition not on the play of the team. This was a match that was marked more by poor defense on the part of both sides, attacks that whilst strong in patches it was only individual brilliance that led to points. Oregon B was a very weak team and all things being equal we should have been a 40 -50 point better side than them. The only reason Oregon did not score points was due to extremely poor ball handling on their part, on 3 occasions they dropped the ball with the goal line open. 

This game rang a great many alarm bells for both Trevor Anderson and I. 

Game 2 – Nor Cal   22-0 Nor Cal
No points
Missed Tackles: 29
Possession: 80% Nor Cal 

Nor Cal was a massive team with huge forwards and backs. They lacked mobility but made up for it with sheer power. With that said, our much smaller forward pack maintained parity with the larger Nor Cal team, and forced Nor Cal to spin the ball wide against us. Our backs were completely outclassed on the day by a hard running and physically dominant Nor Cal backline. Nor Cal spread their defensive line across the field and blitzed all day, giving our backs no time or space to operate. The game plan of spinning the ball out through the backline worked in favor of the Nor Cal team, their solid defense and size in the ¾ line meant they turned over possession close to 100% of the time.  

Again, this game was all about the lessons we learnt from playing a team that was so imposing. 

Game 3 – Oregon A   15-0 Washington 
Trys:  Kelsi Stockert, Erica Legaspi, Heather Castle

Missed Tackles:  9

Possession: 65% Washington 

This was easily the best performance of the day and proved to be a badly needed win. Every aspect of play improved and the game seemed easier than the other matches we had played that day. I rated this as a passing performance, at best, as we were clearly a stronger side than Oregon,  but played below our potential.   

Semi Final – Minnesota   17-5 Washington 
Trys:  Audie Haisch, Erica Legaspi
Conversions: Rachel Buoy 2
Penalties: Rachel Buoy 1

Missed Tackles:  3 missed Tackles
Possession: 75% Washington 

We were clearly the underdogs in this game and many of the people who watched the day 1 games expected us to lose to Minnesota. The key to our success was simply the team’s ability to adopt an entirely different game plan. We changed our scrums significantly for this game packing down in a completely different style to what the girls were used to. This worked wonderfully. On the first scrum, we folded the much bigger Minnesota pack and drove them backwards. This set the pace for the game and meant Minnesota could not clear ball from set pieces. We won half the scrums, however, we only had the loosehead and feed for 2 scrums.  

The wealth of possession provided by the forwards gave the backs the ability to shine and they took every opportunity. We played the game in Minnesota’s half, we kicked out of our half every time we gained possession of the ball, only running it in their territory. The forwards out-played a much bigger Minnesota pack and really set a platform for the backs. Ellie and Rachel kicked superbly, continually turning the Minnesota team around and driving them back into their own half.  

Defensive pressure and attacking pressure were simply outstanding and we basically blitzed Minnesota all day. Maddy was captain for the day and led from the front in both the semi-final and championship game. We were expected to lose to Minnesota, and to say we shocked them and the spectators would be a complete understatement.

Championship – Nor Cal    20-19 Washington 
Trys:  Maddy Glainyk, Amanda Henneman, Uche Esona
Conversions: Ellie Linn
Penalties: Rachel Buoy

Missed Tackles:  12 missed Tackles
Possession: 55% Nor Cal 

Observations:
Yet again the team managed to adapt to a new game plan. This time we kicked almost 90% of the time; we kicked in all parts of the field, even on attack deep inside Nor Cals territory. Ellie, Rachel, and Ari had great matches, constantly confusing the Nor Cal players by kicking to all parts of the field, continually turning the much bigger team around. One of the key factors in our win was our ability to change game plans; something none of the other teams could do. This flexibility was really the determining factor on the day.  

Nor Cal scored first with an unconverted try. We responded a few minutes later with a penalty kick from Rachel, which she slotted from 30m out. From there it was one-way traffic and we scored 20 unanswered points. We scored our third try with 10mins left in the game, and at this point we were cruising home. This all changed when, for a reason I still can’t quite understand, from the kickoff after we scored, we abandoned the game plan we had stuck to so well and decided to run the ball again from inside our own half. Nor Cals defense for the first time in the match had easy targets, and like day 1 started smashing our backs with relentless defensive pressure. We lost possession numerous times and that was all Nor Cal needed to score two quick converted trys. Maddy again showed outstanding leadership, leading the defense to hold Nor Cal out for the last few minutes of the game, winning the championship.   

Apart from the last 10 minutes of the game, we dominated the match with our forwards creating a solid base against a significantly bigger pack, which allowed our halves to kick superbly all day, and constantly put Nor Cal under huge pressure. This was one of the most complete performances I personally have seen from a women’s team in the US. They played the match with the precision you would expect to see from an international rugby side, it was truly outstanding rugby.