Cal Rugby will play Utah tomorrow at Witter Rugby Field at 1pm.

Again, I'm unable to make this one due to a scheduling conflict. Hoping someone else (Chalcid?) will be able to give a description of the result for you.

I will be at the Arizona, Army and St. Marys games unless another unexpected conflict comes up (which I hope won't happen!!!)

I don't know what to make of Utah this year. Arizona trounced them last weekend, and their season got off to a late start (further complicated by a forfeit by one of their competitors early in the season). But they used to be really good.

This is the challenging part of the Bears schedule with Utah, followed by Arizona, Army, Navy, and St. Marys.

Thank You for this reminder!

I would wholeheartedly encourage Cal Football fans to take advantage of the gorgeous weather forecast this weekend and head over to Witter to see a match. It will reinvigorate your belief in Cal Athletics and you will be a proud CAL BEAR until you come back to the Growls board for more pissing and moaning.

Originally I was going to be out of town this weekend, but circumstances have changed and I hope to see the match. I've no idea if this will be streamed or not, but if it is, then newbies to rugby might get more out of that than seeing the game in person, since I think streamed videos include a running description of what's going on, whereas at the game itself, the announcer basically reports nothing except when a score is made, and the name of any Cal players subbing in.

What's the spread on this game? Cal -60?

chalcidbear said:

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Originally I was going to be out of town this weekend, but circumstances have changed and I hope to see the match. I've no idea if this will be streamed or not, but if it is, then newbies to rugby might get more out of that than seeing the game in person, since I think streamed videos include a running description of what's going on, whereas at the game itself, the announcer basically reports nothing except when a score is made, and the name of any Cal players subbing in.

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Good point!

If you are new to the sport and attend the match, try and position yourself amongst some Rugby fans that have a good knowledge base. They will be more than willing to help you understand the match. I used to think that water polo was difficult to understand, but Rugby is on a different level of understanding.

The broadcast team does a great job of explaining the penalties.

59-6 at half, BEARS

Just got back from the game. Weather was perfect for this type of match; no wind, perfectly dry and either sunny or partly cloudy. I wouldn't say it was warm, but it wasn't cold either.

Utah came onto the field looking pretty good- I think the had one or two forwards with the build one associates with Polynesian players - indeed, during the match one of when he had the ball perfectly bowled over the Cal defender trying to tackle him (but on the other side of the coin, a Cal player did the same thing to a Utah player).
Cal scored a try within the first 5 minuets of game time, along with a successful conversion. As it turned out, that was enough to decide the game right there, as the Utes only managed two penalty kicks of (3 points each) for the match. But the Bears added a little more cushion to their score: 112 points more of cushion to be exact.

I have no idea what has happened to the Utah team. Historically they have been in top echelons, and I think they bear a couple of good teams earlier this year, but today they were totally outmatched, and although they looked to play hard, they were unable to execute worth beans. For example, we outright stole 2 or 3 of their lineouts, while we disrupted another 5 or 6. The scrums at least were fairly equal between the teams. But either their tackling was abysmal, or our guys were just fantastic at shedding blocks. Here's one example: after a Cal score, the Utes kicked the ball off. It was heading for the goal zone, and our players backed off, trusting it would go into goal, at which time we'd get scrum at midfield. Instead the ball stopped short of the goal, and as the Utes came crashing forward, the Cal player realized he'd have to play the ball. Typically this would get the ball carrier tackled within 5 meters of the goal. But our guys were able to run it back all the way to the Utes 22 meter line - basically a 77 meter run back. The Utes also had 2 yellow cards played on them - once towards the end of the 1st half, and another in the middle of the 2nd - so that certainly put them at an added disadvantage.

Meanwhile Cal played outstanding. We lost the ball on a couple of penalties (including the two that resulted in the Utes penalty scores), but overall we did everything right. We have a couple of players with great speed that outran all their opponents, and our defense was stifling. We used a different player (O'Connell) to kick the conversions, and except for missing one easy chip (when the rushing defenders pressured him), he did a great job of nailing the conversions, even from the sidelines, thus producing the end score of 119-6.

Because I was at the Pepperdine vs. UC Riverside match, I was only able to get an occasional glance at the stream on my phone. But there was never a moment I thought the Bears weren't going to just explode on the Utes.

Chalcid, I'm with you on being puzzled at the Utes demise. But you may recall there was some sort of scandal a few years back, followed by that awful covid period. Since that time, the Utah program has just never recovered.

Meanwhile, many schools are upping their programs. As many know, Army and Navy have made their programs varsity status. And many of the nations powerhouse teams don't need varsity status because they don;t have football programs, or have lower level football programs, Therefore the rugby teams get high status care since resources aren't swallowed up by football. And just last week, Arizona took it a step further by announcing they will be giving rugby scholarships. So the game is amping up in many schools, while Utah seems to be following stanford in declining.

Thankfully, I do not have a scheduling conflict for the rest of Cal's season. This weekend #12 Arizona comes to Witter, followed by #6 Army (both at home). Then the Bears will take on #1 Navy away followed by the big one in Moraga where the (this week) #5 Bears will take on their local rivals the #4 Gaels. Final game of the season is in Provo vs. #9 BYU.

Witter will be rockin' for the next (and final) 2 home games. Thankfully, Coach Clark is a master at managing his rosters, and he has developed incredibly deep depth so that the Bears should enter each of the final matches with strong representation.


Here's the "official" writeup: https://calbears.com/news/2023/2/18/rugby-bears-topple-utes.aspx