Want to get an idea of how the Cal rugby team’s season has gone so far?
With various combinations of starters, scrubs, frosh-sophs and in-betweens, the Bears have played 12 full-length matches since the regular season began. Aside from a 10-point win over the University of British Columbia on Feb. 16, Cal has won the others by anywhere from 56 to 176 points.
On Saturday against Oregon State, the Bears played their closest match since the UBC game.
The final score? 62-7.
“The performance wasn’t as good as we thought it would be,” said junior Jake Anderson. “But we definitely took something out of the game.”
In a season where challenging opponents have been few and far between, Cal’s slow start was a product of its own sloppy play.
With a mixed lineup featuring a number of inexperienced players, Cal (16-0, 4-0 in the PAC Rugby Conference) struggled to put points on the board in the first half at Peavy Field in Corvallis, Ore. Contrary to their usual pattern of consistent, unbridled offense, the Bears didn’t score their second try until the 21-minute mark.
At halftime, the lead was just 21-0. Apart from the UBC game, it was their lowest 40-minute offensive output of the season.
“We had a high penalty count, some dropped balls,” said senior Danny Barrett. “It didn’t really feel like we were all on the same page to start with. The score indicates that.”
Cal’s woes continued into the second half. An unconverted try by Lyall Davenport in the 46th minute gave the Bears a 26-point cushion, but the Beavers (3-3, 0-2) answered with seven points of their own 11 minutes later.
Not until the final minutes did Cal put the game out of reach. An exhausted Oregon State defense conceded six tries in the final 20 minutes, four of which came in the last ten.
One bright spot, however, was the play of Anderson, who ran in a try and hit five of his six conversions, continuing his bounce back from a 3-for-8 afternoon against Arizona last week.
“Jake Anderson did real well,” Barrett said, “especially as the game went on. He really stepped up as the leader.”
The win, probably the final feasible opportunity for the Bears’ less experienced players to compete for playing time, marks a crucial turning point in the the team’s schedule. Unlike most of the games Cal has played this year, the final three matchups of the regular season will not be served on a silver platter.
In a rematch of Cal’s 28-18 home win over UBC, the Bears take on the Thunderbirds in Vancouver after a two-week layover — their longest break since the 15s season began in January.
The regular season concludes with matchups against Utah and Saint Mary’s. The former lost to Cal by a single point last year. The latter handed the Bears a rare loss a month later.
“It’s a real opportunity to see what this team’s made of,” Anderson said. “We’ve showed a lot of good signs. We’re pretty optimistic going into it. It’ll be good to get some more competitive games under our belt.”
Chris Yoder covers rugby. Contact him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @chrisyoder92.