The Cal rugby team traveled to isla Vista this afternoon to challenge the UCSB Gauchos. The challenge was successful as the Bears scored numerous times to come away with a 115-5 victory. The Gauchos 5 point try was the first successful try scored against Cal thus far this year, and it was achieved on a miserably missed high tackle infraction by UCSB that was not called. But Cal had an answer for everything UCSB threw at them, adn even though I had trouble seeing details, it was pretty obvious the Bears were in control throughout the entire game.

The Gauchos played hard and made a few really nice tackles that brought some "whoas"s from the crowd. But the Gauchos didn't have a monopoly on the hard physical play, and the Cal forwards repeatedly ran over Gaucho tacklers on their way to their numerous scores.

The Bears managed the victory despite making the game a one day excursion. The team left Berkeley at 6:30am, and arrived early enough to spend considerable time on the pitch stretching and drilling in hopes of shaking off the stiffness that comes from 5 hour bus trips.

The Bears showed some effects from the trip particularly on the kickoffs. The Gauchos repeatedly kicked off short, and the Bears had some handling errors in that aspect of the game particularly. But overall, the Bears looked pretty good both offensively and defensively. And again, Bear kicking was money. Schumacher was perfect, and O'Connell missed only one conversion.

As beautiful as the day was at Harder Stadium, I had some problems seeing anything at all because I made the mistake of spraying sunscreen on my face right before kickoff, and it ran into my eyes, making me a tearry eyed mess throughout the entire game. Everything I could see was blurry. I had a hard time recognizing which player was which. Schumacher and O'Connell were easy to identify because they're the kickers. But as the game progressed, especially the farther away the action was from me, I had a difficult time knowing who was who. Naturally, when I got back to the car to drive home, it finally cleared up.........after the game, of course.

Here's a much more comprehensive report for you.

Cal Claims Road Win Over UCSB - California Golden Bears Athletics (calbears.com)

Thanks for the report. Sorry to hear about the sunscreen though - what a pain.

It can work for you, and it can work against you. Some years ago, I had the same situation at a Cal football game against $C. That time it was even worse. I could barely open my eyes! However, thanks to not being able to see, I missed viewing one of th awful first halves in Cal football history (my editorial comment). I was , in a sense, shielded from the pain of seeing a Cal team perform lower than I expected.

Yesterday, however, it worked the opposite way. I was hardly able to see anything more than images moving, which is sad because the rugby team is one of the few that almost never disappoints. Ugh.

Oh well.

Keep it going Bear ruggers! I know the Gaucho stadium pretty well from memory. Nicely sized for the football team of the late 60s, early 70s in the old PCAA. As a redshirt sophomore on the team, we were recruited to play rugby by linebacker Coach Sears, who also played! The Gauchos were decent back then, but relied heavily on football players. The two sports never overlapped too well (they still don't), but we had some fun and I got injured in spring football and never actually saw the rugby field. Years later living in New Zealand, I became a rugby fan and still follow the All Blacks today. Both men and women Kiwi teams are currently leading the world 7's series with a weekend coming up here in LA February 25-26 with the best teams in the world. As a side note, I lived with Cal QB Dave Penhall at Smegma Chi fraternity, and he became quite the rugby player himself. He was on the local Shore rugby team which had lots of success and still does with home in Long Beach.