Losing isn’t fun, and at Cal it’s also not very common, but sometimes a loss has its silver lining.

For the Bears, the fact that they lost 20-15 to UBC is disappointing, but at the same time, British Columbia came into the game undefeated, having beaten a long list of top BC-based clubs, the Seattle Saracens (twice), New Zealand Universities, and Oxford. With Cal having only played a few games, there was a real fear that UBC would roll.

“I thought there was a chance that we’d get embarrassed,” said Cal Head Coach Jack Clark. “They’ve run the table so far. They’ve got a lot of talent and older guys. They’ve very good. We talked about how if you don’t show up, you’re going to get embarrassed.”

So a 20-15 loss where the winning try was there for the taking at the end of the game, maybe not so bad.

“I think it was pretty clear that we could play with them,” said Clark. “And had he played a little bit better we could have won the game.”

Clark made note of the Bears’ poor kicking from hand, and several dropped balls and turnovers that made life difficult for the one team. 

“It wasn’t our cleanest game,” he said.

At the end of the contest, Cal had the ball right on the UBC tryline. But the Thunderbirds had been defending well close-in all day, so perhaps a shot out wide might have worked. The Cal players opted for a more conservative approach, something they Clark said wasn’t really the plan.

“Had we changed our tactics on the goal line we might have won it,” he said.

But Cal was close, and they were a little unlucky. UBC was given two yellow cards, both for professional fouls that stopped tries. That was certainly a little frustrating for Cal, as they might have finally made their way over the line but for those penalties. But as the same time, they were a player up at the end of the game and didn’t exploit it.

“We had some other opportunities,” added Clark. “But we never got into much of a rhythm. We kicked the ball too much and typically, when we did we kicked to a guy with his shoulders upfield. I think if we had kept more ball in hand we could have asked more questions of them. We got around them early and didn’t do it again.”

Clark lauded his team’s effort level and physicality, but “I don’t know that we played as much poise as we’re capable.”

So now on to Arizona, where the Bears will play Arizona on Saturday and Arizona State on Monday. The Bears are expected to mix up their lineups. Some players will get a rest, and Clark will likely run out two very different 15s in those games. It’s fair to say, after the UBC game, and despite some injuries, Cal expects to come away with two wins on the trip.