Cal hosts Cal Poly on Saturday to open D1A Rugby 15s Championships

Golden Bears are the West 3rd seed in what may be a wild postseason with lots of parity

Looking to snap a rare 3-match losing streak (although that 3rd loss is a Cal reserve team losing to BYU’s A-Team), California Golden Bears (10-3) may see an extra match as a positive thing to get back on track. Cal, the 3rd-seed of the West, will host 6th-seed Cal Poly on Saturday, April 8th in the opening round of the 2023 D1A National Championships.

Only the top-two seeds in each half of the D1A Rugby 15s Championships bracket, announced last Monday, got byes. Central Washington and St. Mary’s College are ranked above Cal. SMC awaits the winner between Cal and Cal Poly next weekend in Moraga, CA. Central Washington will host the winner between Arizona and BYU. Cal and BYU are the heavy favorites to advance in the West.

In the East, Navy and Lindenwood are the top-two seeds. Life and Army will host first-round matches and are heavily favored to advance.

In a year with arguably more parity than usual in collegiate rugby 15s, any of the top-8 teams could win the national championship. Navy, the lone undefeated team, was only able to beat Cal by 5 points three weeks ago in Annapolis. SMC has beaten Central Washington, but Central Washington has lost to BYU.

By announcing the postseason bracket a week before the final weekend of play (due to the organizers wanting to give teams more time to plan their travel), D1A Rugby denied BYU the chance to possibly jump up to a first-round bye. The bracket was already set before the Cal at BYU match, which was also moved up by a day for another reason. Cal head coach Jack Clark opted to send a reserve-grade squad to BYU, so there are many reasons why the 50-14 loss at Provo this past weekend was an aberration.

Nonetheless, that loss came on the heels of a 33-28 Navy victory in Annapolis and a 38-34 SMC win in Berkeley (a match that was relocated from Moraga to Berkeley at the last minute due to the rainy week). Golden Bears have not won since a 31-14 home victory over Army, the 2022 national champion, on March 4th.

Prior to the Army match, Cal had dominated their opponents. Yet in a year when they did not play the University of British Columbia, who now play the "World Cup" match against St. Mary's College instead (UBC won), Cal really did not challenge themselves until late. None of the other PAC schools (UCLA, Utah, Arizona) have elevated rugby to a varsity sport like Life (2010), Lindenwood (2011), Army (2014), Central Washington (2014), and Navy (2022) have done in recent years. Cal Rugby has retained its varsity status since being founded back in 1882. Injuries also caused some lineup changes and new combinations. Due to the pandemic (no rugby championships were held in 2020 AND 2021 unlike the NCAA-sponsored sports that only missed one year), even upperclassmen have less game experience than in the past. Against SMC and Navy, Cal also does not have a drastic size advantage, like in years past pre-parity, that can cover up execution mistakes. Of course, all of these other contenders face the same issues as Cal.

Senior co-captain Max Schumacher is a nominee for the Rudy Scholz Award (Photo Credit: Guy Warren Photography via Cal Bears dot com)

Cal Bears certainly have the ability to run the table. They will just need to cut down on the ball-handling mistakes that doomed them in the close losses to Navy and SMC. Gone are the days of Cal Rugby dominating all competitions. Jack Clark's men have not lifted the championship trophy since 2017. Golden Bears were the national runner-up in 2018 and 2019 before the two-year pandemic hiatus. Cal also has not won the D1A Rugby Championship since 2011 since they competed in a breakaway Varsity Cup competition from 2013-17 (winning twice) due to disagreements over how USA Rugby operates D1A Rugby. The 2023 D1A Rugby Championship will be played on May 6th at Sabercats Stadium in Houston, TX and be streamed on The Rugby Network.

Like 3rd-seed LSU and 4th-seed UConn winning the women's and men's NCAA basketball tournaments, Cal can of course break the championship drought in 2023 despite being under-seeded. Just like those championships, this championship final will also be in Texas. Getting back to the win column this Saturday against Cal Poly will be a start.

Cal hosts Cal Poly at Witter Rugby Field on Saturday, April 8th at 1 PM PT. Cal Poly (10-2) has only lost to SMC (85-7) and UCLA (36-27). There is slight controversy over their inclusion in the postseason over UCLA. Cal Bears should not overlook the Mustangs, but I would expect opportunities for the reserves to play in the second half.