Penalty kick for the win with no time left

Very inconsistent refereeing...and many Cal miscues.

St Mary's played very hard. Well coached team.

Since this was the last 15s game I will assume Coach Clark played all seniors and was not too concerned about win/lose. That being said, Cal rugby just isn't the same after the 'league' modifications were made 2 years ago. The playoffs and finals at the Stanford
pitch were great functions. No more.

All that'a left of this season are the 7s tournament and Cal will probably not make it past the 2nd round. Hope I'm wrong, but, Cal doesn't have the speed to compete in the 7s.
This is based on my uniformed knowledge of rugby.

It was a lot of fun to watch. A beautiful day and a big crowd. I'm no expert, but to my eye, Cal did not play well. Lots of dropped balls, poor throw ins, and missed tackles. St. Mary's seemed to have the best of most scrums as well. I have no idea who played and who didn't, but St. Mary's looked like the better side today.

... one of the top squad in the nation, so losing to them is no disgrace (below is a link to the official report):

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-rugby/recaps/041512aab.html

I wish I could have attended, as I enjoy a close-played exciting game much more than one where Cal simply steam-rolls the opponent (well, unless the opponent is the junior college in Palo Alto).

they'd been closing the gap against us for several years. They have a tremendous coach and a good program...they're a very good team.

Many of us figured that if the Gaels would beat us...this might be the year. They're stacked and we're a little down. Pretty much played out that way. Cal made enough mistakes to lose and SMC did just enough to win.

Just sucks for the seniors that they're ending their Cal careers with a loss. No playoffs. What a kick in the nuts. Feel for those guys.

chalcidbear;737376 said:

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... one of the top squad in the nation, so losing to them is no disgrace (below is a link to the official report):

http://www.calbears.com/sports/m-rugby/recaps/041512aab.html

I wish I could have attended, as I enjoy a close-played exciting game much more than one where Cal simply steam-rolls the opponent (well, unless the opponent is the junior college in Palo Alto).

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Is this like Stanford losing to UCDavis about 5 years ago?? Aren't we the only school offering scholarships in California or in the western USof A? I'm sure coach Clark was not happy...

OBear073akaSMFan;737381 said:

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Is this like Stanford losing to UCDavis about 5 years ago?? Aren't we the only school offering scholarships in California or in the western USof A? I'm sure coach Clark was not happy...

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it's nothing of the sort. SMC is a top 5 national rugby program. This is not a loss to be ashamed of.

and we do not offer rugby scholarships at Cal. this is a common misconception because rugby recruits do receive preferred admission to Cal if their grades are in order. There is no financial aid whatsoever though.

ManBear;737383 said:

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it's nothing of the sort. SMC is a top 5 national rugby program. This is not a loss to be ashamed of.

and we do not offer rugby scholarships at Cal. this is a common misconception because rugby recruits do receive preferred admission to Cal if their grades are in order. There is no financial aid whatsoever though.

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Sorry for the misunderstanding of the scholarship question. Thanks for clarifying it.

OBear073akaSMFan;737386 said:

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Sorry for the misunderstanding of the scholarship question. Thanks for clarifying it.

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no problem. figured i'd clarify because there's a lot of folks who assume that Cal rugby is a scholarship sport at Cal, which it's not. There's really only two schools i know of that offer rugby scholarships...Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee State.

ManBear has it right. No scholarships are given to Cal rugby players but there are a limited number of preferred admissions, provided the student-athlete's grades are in order.

Tim O'Brien and his staff have built a very strong program at St. Mary's and it is good for collegiate rugby, both in nothern California and the country, to have a bit more competition. St. Mary's has overcome the loss of a couple top players during the season and just returned from a tour to Ireland and Wales, the latter of which obviously helped. I spoke with their forward's coach after the match about the Gaels' dominance in the scrum and he said they made some positional changes this week to put Cal under more pressure. Clearly, it worked.

They are a talented and experienced squad and deserve a lot of credit for yesterday's victory. It is a great win for their program and I hope they win the whole thing this season but it will be a tough road going through BYU in Utah. This is their year to shine as they will lose a fair amount of seniors next year.

Cal will be fine. This loss does not signify the beginning of the end. We are pretty inexperienced and and have a lot of young talent coming through the program. I/m not worried at all about the direction of the program under Jack Clark but am very bummed for the seniors to end their career with a loss and no opportunity for playoffs or a national championship.

Next year we'll back on Witter Field with a grop of hungry, disciplined and well coached lads. Looking forward to it.

Go Bears!!

Though Cal is not the power (Utah has been winning the tourney). Its a different game relying more on speed, and less on power. Its also an Olympic event, which means its the way the game is turning. The comments about ST. Mary's having a legit team are dead on. While Cal does get a few athletic stars, it basically has been winning with a bunch of guys that normally would be playing Ivy league football. Good/smart, but not great athletes. It has a lot more to do with team work and depth. Its a testament to Clark and the players that there are not more "upsets." There is a misconception that Cal has a monopoly on talented players given how amazingly successful the program has been over the last couple decades, but if you look at the semi-pro and Olympic teams, other schools are well represented.

Haven't heard anything about next year, but as to your dream conference: that might work well in a sport with serious funding for travel, but IMO College Rugby hasn't reached that point yet. Up until recently, Cal was in a grouping of local schools (inc. Stan Jr. Univ, St. Mary's, Davis, Chico, Nevada-Reno), which involved CHEAP travel between games. You start adding in long distance travel (like southern California, Arizona and the Rocky Mountains) and suddenly you are talking about a much greater outlay of Do-re-mi, and I don't think there is that kind of budget for a lot of schools.

norcalbuff;737525 said:

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Cal will be fine. It was a young team and they were missing stud Danny Barrett. Both he and Seamus Kelly may very well end up playing for the national team one day. This is one of SMC's best teams ever too, so no shame in the loss and it's good for college rugby to have some parity.

Have any of you guys heard what's going to happen next season? There have been some rumors of BYU leaving D1-A/CPD and the general trend in college rugby has been a move towards more traditional athletic conferences. Here's my dream scenario: a Pac 12 rugby conference with Cal, Utah, CU, UCLA, Arizona and ASU plus BYU and St Mary's. Add in the Furd if they ever get their act together. That would be one hell of a rugby conference and the games could be competitive enough and of a high enough quality to actually draw in some fans and maybe make some money.

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they have looked competitive against the other Pac school (other than
Cal) in the Pac tourney down at UCLA.