A strong second half by Cal Rugby turns into a 55-31 semifinal win over BYU
California Golden Bears will take on Navy Midshipmen for the 2023 D1A National Championship on May 6th from Houston, TX (AVEVA Stadium)
After a one-year absence, California Golden Bears are back in the collegiate rugby 15s national championship final.
What felt somewhat unlikely just weeks ago, when the Cal Bears closed their regular season with three straight losses (at Navy, vs. SMC, a reserve squad routed at BYU), became a reality on Saturday afternoon from Witter Rugby Field in Berkeley, CA. Cal has avenged two of those losses and will have the opportunity to avenge that third one at the national championship in two weeks.
Similar to their tight 29-28 quarterfinal win over St. Mary’s College, Cal Bears used a dominant second half to turn a tie match (19-19) into a victory.
Playing in “Bear Territory” in front of a raucous home crowd, Cal jumped out with two quick scores. A clever (but rare in collegiate rugby) use of a kick turned into an Alex Aguero try in the second minute. With how teams retain possession in rugby after a score, Rand Santos added another quick try to put Cal ahead 12-0 after just 5 minutes of play.
Cal Bears came close to a third try but turned the ball over. BYU Cougars quickly took advantage of their size up front, effectively using the rolling maul to power their way into two tries in minutes 14 and 24. Cal quickly answered with a try from Kealan O'Connell and a conversion by Max Schumacher in the 30th minute. BYU immediately equalized when their drive down the field ended on a fortuitous bounce of the ball into an open Cougar to score the equalizing try and conversion. BYU had the last attempt to score before the half, but the first half ended on a turnover by the Cougars with the two sides tied at 19 points apiece.
Just like the first half, Cal started the second half strongly. A strong drive down the field resulted in Max Clark getting into the try zone at the corner (tough conversion went off the post and no good) just 6 minutes in. Solomon Williams took BYU by surprise via a quick restart to score just three minutes later. Cal Bears led 31-19 after 49 minutes.
While the Bears took control of the game (for good), they did lose a starter Joe Kirsten to what appeared to be a shoulder injury. Kirsten was initially not moving at all after going down, and I cannot help but flash back to Cal's last Rugby 15s championship win back in 2017 when Robert Paylor's life changed forever. Fortunately, Kirsten was able to leave under his own power, but grabbed his shoulder gingerly, after being attended to by the Cal medical staff.
As one Cal Bear left via injury, another one made his triumphant return. Co-captain Nathan Zylstra entered the game and immediately led Cal to another score where he and the Bears executed the rolling maul for a score. Replacing the young Cade Christ (who had played great last week) as the hooker (No.2), Zylstra was also able to avoid the twice made mistakes by Christ earlier in the match of a non-straight throw on lineouts that turned into turnovers. Having Zylstra back for his first action since the middle of February could make a very big difference in two weeks.
In the 64th minute, Cal opted for a penalty kick, converted with ease by co-captain Max Schumacher to take a 22-point lead, requiring BYU to score 4x to win. Cougars did answer with a try and conversion but promptly made a mistake that quickly turned into a penalty try awarded to Cal (a BYU player made an illegally low tackle close to the try line and he was also sent to the "sin bin" for the remainder of the match). Moments later, freshman Rand Santos scooped up the loose ball on another desperate BYU attack attempt to cap Cal's scoring tally to 55 points on the afternoon.
"Congratulations to BYU on a really fine season," Cal head coach Jack Clark said. "Proud of our boys for advancing."
The Rugby Network should have the full replay of this match up on their on-demand section for College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) D1A action soon.
On the other side of the bracket, undefeated Navy found a way to hold off Lindenwood 12-10 in a windy match in Annapolis, Maryland. Navy led 12-3 at the half and held down to preserve their perfect season that included a home win over Cal.
The previous Cal vs. Navy match is available on demand at The Rugby Network. The windy condition of that match also had a strong impact on the 33-28 Navy victory from Annapolis, Maryland.
Dare I say that Cal might be considered a slight favorite going into the championship final against Navy? Reading Cal's dominance in recent second halves as signs of good discipline and conditioning, Golden Bears should feel confident going into the championship final. Cal has also shown the ability to limit (if not really stop) the rolling mauls of their oppositions.
Navy (17-0) does not quite have the scoring potential of Cal but they play a disciplined possession-based game instead. The Midshipmen also accumulated the bulk of their win totals from fall rugby 15s play; Cal has played significantly more matches (15 or 16, depending on if you count that BYU regular season match) in 2023 than Navy (just 6). Of course, SMC probably thought that they were the favorite against Army at the neutral site (same as this year in Houston, TX) championship final last year but Army prevailed 20-8.
The Joe Kirsten injury may mean a less experienced and speedy No.15 (full back) for the Bears. His replacement on Saturday, Will Shankland had two mishandles of the ball before suffering an injury and had to be subbed off before the end of the match. We are unlikely to know who will and won't be available for the championship final until that day.
It has been several years since Cal last lifted the championship trophy. No one on Cal's current roster has experienced that joy, only a few were even around when Cal lost to Life in the D1A national championship final in 2019 because no championships were held in 2020 and 2021. Conversely, this will be the first national championship final for Navy in their program history. It should be an exciting final (at least for the first half), and Cal fans are encouraged to sign up for a free account on the online-only The Rugby Network (https://www.therugbynetwork.com) and watch the livestream with us on May 6th.
ROLL ON YOU BEARS!
I think our last 15's Natty was 6 years ago. Navy is well coached, doesn't make many unforced errors and is very crisp with their passes. This will be a tough test for us; both are excellent teams.