In this weekend’s installment of “be careful what you wish for” Saint Mary’s makes the trip to Phoenix to play Grand Canyon University in the first weekend of January.
It’s a slow weekend in college rugby to be sure and anyone playing would be forgiven for taking it easy, but these guys haven’t. GCU enters the meat of its independent D1A schedule while Saint Mary’s follows this game up with a trip to British Columbia to take on Trinity Western and University of British Columbia.
Right now, both sides are still looking at what they have and what they can accomplish.
“We are going down there to play a really good group of players with a professional coaching setup,” said Saint Mary’s head Coach Tim O’Brien. “I think I have yet to get the fall playing equation right. I will get it right at some points but we have had a bit of an odd preseason this year. We will certainly find out a lot about ourselves in this game.”
With a B-side game also on the slate this trip was certainly worth it for the Gaels. O’Brien said scheduling, and finding games for every player, is a major part of what he does.
“Kids don’t come out for rugby to practice, they come out to play, and if they need to develop they need 12 to 15 games in which to do it. So it’s important for everyone to get games.”
Saint Mary’s is coming in with a lot of really nice pieces to the puzzle. They are led by fifth-year seniors Kaipono Koyashi, who is the team captain, with Inoke Waqavesi and Erich Storti part of the leadership group. All of them will be important as the Gaels face a stern challenge in Arizona.
