Technically there’s nothing at stake in Salt Lake City this weekend. Utah has a shot at finishing 2nd in the PAC Rugby Conference, and may well have already done enough to warrant a DIA playoff invitation.

BYU is already slated for the Varsity Cup, where they expect to go all the way to the final.

Win or lose this weekend, those other things are going to happen, so the Wasatch Cup game between the Cougars and the Utes doesn’t mean anything, right?

Of course that’s wrong. Utah and BYU have a long-stranding rivalry that carries all you’d expect from same - upsets, controversy, unflinching physicality, and maybe just a dash of dislike.

Both teams come into the game having beaten the very strong St. Mary’s squad. Of course the lineup that faced Utah was not quite as strong as the lineup that faced BYU, but the results are the results. But the similarity kind of ends there. BYU has been unbeatable and constantly so, despite St. Mary’s pushing them to the wire. Utah has been all over the place, playing very well on some days and poorly on others.

But that inconsistency was part of the journey for the Utes, a journey that has been a tough road back from a suspension that threatened to kill off the program.

“At the beginning of the season we lay it all out there,” said co-captain and flyhalf Danny Christensen. “We go over the entire story and we’re totally transparent about how we screwed up and almost lost the program. We usually talk about it again at almost every practice - it speaks to character. We know the kind of character we want in this program.”

Utah is back in the PAC Conference and competing at a high level, but this game against BYU means they are really, really back.

We haven’t hosted BYU on campus in four or five years,” said Christensen. “So to host them on campus is a big step for us. It looks like we could sell out the stadium and we’re going to have a lot of support here, and that’s important for us.”

On the field, Utah has to play their best game to beat BYU.

“Power and pace,” said Christensen. “As long as we can get good, clean ball and move quickly through the phases we can do it. We have been working on our fundamentals and our approach as a team, and coming into this game we feel really good.”

Christenson is part of a senior cadre of players that includes Tonata Lauti at flyhalf, Dane Madsen at lock, and Spencer Vickery up front, but other players have put their hand up. Prop Benj Mills is a big part of the power and pace approach. He is strong with the ball in hand and covers the field well for a prop.

The center pairing of Scott Strong and Taylor Thomas has come together nicely. Both are hard players who won’t back down.

But … and it’s a big but … they are playing BYU.

The Cougars are very tough in the breakdown, They have shown a remarkable ability to turn turnover ball into tries.

“Every season is good, but this one has been especially impressive,” said BYU assistant coach Wayne Tarawhiti. “Our boys have really come together and know what they are doing. They play as a team.”

The back row of Eagle Kyle SUmsion, Ara Elkington, and Joe Pikula is especially impressive, and in Luke Mocke and Jonny Linehan the Cougars have a halfback combination that does a nice job of controlling field position.

Seki Kofe and Josh Whippy seem settled in the midfield, while Ryan Blaser is, like his opposite number Lauti, a wild card out of the fullback position.

“We worked really hard this year to defend our now 8–0 record,” said Sumsion after his team beat St. Mary’s. They will have to work hard again to get to 9-0. And they will have to do it in hostile territory, because for the Cougars from Provo, there’s nothing more hostile than the University of Utah campus an hour north on I-15.

Notes: Kickoff is 1pm Mountain Time at the University of Utah Soccer Field. Reportedly, 75% of the tickets have already been sold, with a strong walkup crowd expected, also.

The last time Utah hosted BYU was 2010, when BYU won 15-10. In 2011 BYU won 40-22 at Rio Tinto Stadium. In 2012 it was 38-22 for BYU, and then in 2013 the game was cancelled after a player-centered disciplinary problem resulted in the Utah program being suspended. In 2014 the game returned, with BYU winning 41-21 in Provo.