College Roundup: Most One-Sided and One Surprise

01.21.2024

Men's college rugby gave us several lopsided games over the weekend, so here's a recap.

Cal beat UC Santa Barbara 119-0. The Bears exploded for eight tries and a 46-0 lead at 26 minutes. At that point they emptied their bench and the Gauchos held them scoreless until just before halftime. At that point the new-look group of Cal Bears unleashed four converted tries in the space of ten game minutes either side of halftime.

Not what UCSB wanted, to be sure, but Head Coach Neil Foote will use this is a learning experience.

“We appreciate UCSB for sticking with the match,” said Cal Head Coach Jack Clark. “I believe it is the nature of the competition, in that the Gauchos had a blowout scoreline victory versus Stanford last week and have the tables turned on them a week later. Santa Barbara is rebuilding their program and we’re all pulling for them.”

Kealan O'Connell logged 21 points on a try and eight conversions; Dougie Brown got 18 on two tries and four conversions. No Bear scored more than two tries.

Saint Mary's defeated UC Davis by a large margin in a California Conference game. We have the score at 90-3, but that's unofficial. It was raining and cold and ugly but the Gaels were still able to play some fast rugby. The UCD Aggies were strong in tight and in set piece, but the speed of the Saint Mary's game is something they needed to catch up to.

Lock Matt Abbes, flanker Tommy Deitchman, and prop Oliver Dugan led a high-work-rate forward effort for the Gaels.

Grand Canyon beat Arizona State 50-0 in a crossover between D1A and D1AA. GCU was a little slow and inaccurate in the first half and led at halftime, but only 7-0. Head Coach Sean O'Leary said that better attention detail was the key to a 43-0 second half. The 2nds won 51-0.

"We're grateful to [ASU Coach] Pieter [Hugo] and his players as they grow as a program," O'Leary continued. "Arizona teams should be competing every chance we get to get better. I know that GCU and ASU got better today."

And speaking of Arizona, the University of Arizona Wildcats won comfortably over the visiting University of Washington, who were on a trip to find warmer weather.

They found it, and a hot-to-trot Wildcat team that put together a solid team showing, especially from some of their younger players.

These D1A-D1AA crossovers are valuable for both programs—often it's a chance for the D1A teams to get more players some A-side minutes and some A-side buy-in. For the D1AA teams it's a view into what could be. Yes we at GRR would have loved to see an expanded traditional Pac-12 conference, but it would have to be tiered (and financed). Even so, there is room for the likes of UW and their PNW cohorts to take steps.

And the big surprise ... OK not a big surprise but a bit of a head-turner, BYU beat Cal Poly by the score of ... 26-12. This was probably much, much closer than many expected. And yes BYU has been in winter mode and it was played in San Luis Obispo, but this was still, while a loss, a good showing by the Mustangs.

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