Just when it looked like the Cal rugby team had a chance to pull off another come-from-behind victory in the team’s biggest game of the year, the Bears came up just short.
With only seconds left in the match, Brigham Young University’s freshman halfback Jonathan Linehan received the ball from a scrum just meters away from the Bears’ goal line. The Cal players had no time to react. In one motion, Linehan drop-kicked the ball through the uprights.
The referee then blew his whistle. The match was over.
Cal (21-1) fell, 27-24, to BYU (12-2) in Saturday afternoon’s final of the inaugural Varsity Cup National Championships.
“Guys played really hard, but I think our game was lacking a certain level of precision,” said Cal captain Seamus Kelly after the match. “We just let some little things go, and that cost us.”
Kelly emphasized that the Bears’ inability to complete scoring chances was key to the final outcome. Fullback Jake Anderson missed two penalty kicks, and Cal failed to come away with points after having chances near the Cougars’ goal line.
“They just took advantage of our mistakes and their opportunities,” Kelly said. “In a championship game, you can’t leave points off the board.”
Cal head coach Jack Clark agreed. He felt his team’s inability to put points away early played a bigger factor in his team’s loss than the final play of the match.
“I think we had some opportunities to score some points earlier in the match,” Clark said. “We had three or four legitimate scoring opportunities that we didn’t realize. That was a game that we could have won, and we didn’t. We let that one get away.”
But even with the missed chances, the Bears had multiple instances where they fought back during the game. The comeback began at the end of the first half.
Trailing by 13 points with six minutes left in the half, Cal freshman flyhalf Russell Webb’s quick-tap off of a penalty surprised BYU. Webb drove over the try-line, and his score brought the game to the 16-10 halftime score.
The Bears’ effort continued in the second half. “We had some players who put their guts into it, like Seamus,” Clark said. “I thought we played better in the second half that we did in the first.”
With the Cougars leading 19-10, mid-way through the second half, the Bears scored off of an attacking lineout. After Brendan Daly received the ball, a rolling maul from the Bears pushed BYU back to its goal line where flanker Jack O’Beirne touched down.
After an unconverted try by the Cougars, the Bears used another attacking lineout to set up a try from Kelly. A conversion by Anderson tied the score at 24 with only six minutes remaining.
Then came Linehan’s kick in the final seconds to seal the game. The freshman accounted for 22 of BYU’s points.
The Cougars’ win gave the team their third national championship in program history. All three have come in the past five seasons.
It was also the seventh meeting between the two teams in a national championship. With the loss, the Bears now have a 5-2 record in those matches.
After beating BYU in the national championship final in 2010 and 2011, the Bears failed to make the postseason last year.
Cal’s veteran players therefore viewed this year’s campaign as an opportunity for redemption.
And although the Bears’ season did not end perfectly, the team’s success this year was a sign that the program was back to its expectations.
“There were some great moments this season,” Kelly said. “I think we can look at ourselves as the team that got that Cal rugby back on track.”
Stephen Hobbs covers rugby. Contact him at [email protected]