There were bits of sun out today, but not for very long, so the weather ran from OK to chilly to cold. Very light westerly wind that didn't appear to affect play at all.

I missed the first 6-7 minutes of the match, and when I arrived it was still 0-0. Cal scored shortly after, followed by a Wildcat score, so IIRC, it was 5-5 early on. Cal scored next to go up 12-5, and never lost the lead again. As time expired at the end of the 1st half, Cal was up 17-5, but play was still going, and in fact continued for another 5 minutes or so, ending in an Arizona score so the halftime score was 17-12. Definitely a close game.

In the first half of the 2nd period, both teams traded scores, and about 1/2 way through the period, the score was 24-17 after the Wildcats scored a try. But the two things happened which really boosted the Bears: for the conversion following the Arizona try, Cal blocked the conversion kick! (This is a rare event that I don't remember ever seeing before). Then on the following play (when the Bears kick off to the Wildcats), the Bears recovered it, and (IIRC) followed that up with a score. After that both sides seem to settle down, with the Bears in the catbird seat, although Cal was down a player for 10 minutes due to a yellow card. Cal scored 2 more tries really late in the game, for a final score of 36-17, but the game in truth was much closer than that score indicated.

Usually, when one team has the ball, they seldom can simply bust through the defenders' line, and instead lateral the ball back until they can make a small gain on the edge. But in the 1st half, on two separate occasions, the Cal player with the ball was able to dodge between defenders for major gains (in the 2nd half, Arizona closed up the gaps and shut that attack down). Again, Cal's strength is really defense - 'Zona's 1st try came from an interception they made on the edge of the field that they were able to capitalize with a quick score, while their second try came after 5 minutes of hard back and forth struggle at a point 5 meters away from Cal's goal line. The Wildcats got close to the goal a couple more times, but were again turned back. In general, both scrums and lineouts were fairly even, but Arizona seemed to have a slight advantage in both. I counted 7 times when play was stopped due to an injury to an Arizona player (one had to leave the field, the rest were able to continue play), while I saw play stop once one due to a Cal injury, but that was a brief stoppage and the player continued on.

So it was a hard fought victory - I expect Arizona to continue to prove to be a tough competitor. Next week we play Army at Witter - it's gonna be another tough contest.

Chalcid, on my nametag at the tailgate, I put on my nametag my name and "TomBear on B.I." in case you were there. I'll do the same thing next week.

Took me 10 hours to get up there from SoCal (7 1/2 to get home), due to the closure at the Grapevine. I doubt I will do that again if weather conditions are the same. I was just wiped out by the time I got to the hotel.

A few observations:

1) For the first time in years I watched the game from field level. I missed some nuanced stuff, but could certainly get a feel for the intensity. Arizona brought their best to the Bears this week. They tackled pretty well. I thought their offensive distribution was pretty good and their backs ran courageously.

2) I was disappointed in the forwards in set piece play. It looked to me like we simply conceded the lineouts for the most part. I may be wrong because your observation was it was pretty even. And I ended up in conversation with people around me during many set piece situations. But I only remember the Bears winning 1 lineout. I KNOW that's not right. But it sure looked to me like the Bears went into llineouts with a defensive mindset.

3) Cal had a few trys denied. I couldn't see any infractions, but...........

4) The Bears had to fight the Referee all day, it seemed. I generally don't criticize officiating. But I just never got the feeling this referee was very good. Again, field level limits my overall view. But I saw him miss a couple of "obvious" calls, and it just seemed to me he wasn't all that great.

5) Your observation about injuries was valid. It did seem like about 6-7 Arizona players went down at various times. Also, there was some significant slippage on the field. That didn't surprise me. But I wonder if that contributed to the injury situation.

6) Cal's tackling is not only strong and physical, it's just plain excellent. In rugby you have to be careful about committing too many players to a tackle due to positioning. Last weekend when i watched Pepperdine against UC Riverside, I noted that it was often when 3 or even 4 players committed to a tackle where control was already decided. Bears are very good at not over committing players who aren't beneficial to the take down.

7) The Bears have a fair number of injuries. I'm hoping they're not serious because in the next four weeks, Cal plays #8 (Army at home), then #1 Navy AT Navy, the big one against #6 St. Marys AT Moraga, then finish the regular season at #7 BYU, again AT BYU. Fortunately, Coach really gives as much game time exposure to reserves as possible, so the "next man up" cry is valid and not as concerning as it might be for other teams. But it's a bad time to have players hurting with that tough a schedule coming up.

A couple of other incidentals:

The Cal Reserves just destroyed the Arizona reserves in the opener yesterday. (See my point #7 above).

Also yesterday, in Moraga, St. Marys trounced Grand Canyon. It wasn't close.

So we head to the home stretch. It's a frightening way to close the season. But we all know the Bears will be in this thing big-time.

BTW, it was nice to see so many former ruggers come back for Homecoming. Nice recognition at half time. I was surprised at the number of former players who played both rugby and football at Cal. I knew we had a history of that some years ago. But more than a few from more recent years showed up and shared interesting stories.

What a great tradition!!!

Tom,
I'm not familiar with the tailgates - I usually only have time to pop in for the game and right out again. You are right that the Bears didn't contest many lineouts (probably none in the 2nd half), but I figure that if the team throwing the ball in gets possession, that's about even. I was amused about your comment about the ref though. I was sitting in the south stands, near to Arizona players and fans, and they were also repeatedly unhappy with the officiating, and made their displeasure known. Although I understand (at least in theory) about 80% of the laws of rugby, I have a difficult time recognizing infractions as they occur on the field, so I have no idea how good or bad the referee is. Perhaps the ref lets relatively "minor" infractions go so as to let play continue?

Sorry to hear about the commute. I'm blessed living only a 15-20 minute drive from Witter.

The laws seem to be modified on a yearly basis, Chalcid. Honestly? I never knew all of them even when I played!

From my "vantage" point, I think the ref was out of position for a few calls. Reffing rugby is really challenging because the ref on the field has authority over all 30 players, and it's not possible to get every call right. I'll look for this game on YouTube when it gets posted and see if I can get a better understanding of what I've criticized.

Rugby tailgate is a tradition at each home match. I'll PM you my cell number and if you get there early enough to join in, call me and I'll help direct you.

This Saturday the Bears host Army. The Cadets are coached by former Cal player Matt Sherman, not only a former Cal Rugger, but a former Cal Assistant Coach, and a former Eagle. He coached at San Diego State and Stanford. Wherever he has coached he has had success. He even has a Coach Clark mustache! His rugby pedigree is strong and the Cadets have been formidable since he became their coach in 2015.

Tom and Chalcid: as always, enjoying reading your takes on the matches.
I definitely enjoyed this match for being more closely contested. Arizona has some very strong players that really tested our tackling.

Arizona's rolling maul at the try line was pretty impressive --- did they score two tries that way? Now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing that much at all in Cal matches, with Cal on either side of the ball. Any comments on that?

I thought line-out play was strange all through the game. From Arizona getting called for not throwing straight on a couple of their early throw-ins, to Cal not seeming to contest Arizona throw ins. And then at least one of Cal's throw-ins where our player with the ball was able to simply run through a gap in Arizona's line.

I can't comment on the officiating beyone really feeling like it was bogging down the match in the 2nd half particularly.

I'm just thankful that so many matches have been streamed. (There were two announcers on this match. I'm reasonably impressed with the one or two that have announced these Cal-produces streaming broadcasts.)

Definitely looking forward to the tougher rivals upcoming in the next few matches (and hoping that the away matches will be streamed...)

Go Bears!

I agree that not many line-outs were contested as the game went on but Cal did steal one when needed near its own try line.