The Pacific West Rugby Conference kicks off this weekend with a full slate of games.

The DIAA men’s college conference sees two new additions, as Sacramento State and UC Davis join the seven teams from last year. Defending 2013-14 champions Stanford made the national quarterfinals before losing 27-24 to eventual runners-up Arizona. The Cardinal host UC Santa Cruz a week after losing a tough non-conference game to Santa Clara. Head Coach Matt Sherman said he was happy with his team’s performance in several areas.

“Things like effort and physicality were good,” he said. “In terms of skills we are ahead of where we were last year, but still not where we need to be.”

Sherman said he is looking for different leaders to step forward each week, and while flyhalf Oscar Sandoval and wing Wesley Greiner impressed last week, it could be two others looking good against the Banana Slugs this week.

Nevada visits Fresno State in a clash that is rife with questions. The Wolfpack looks to be on the upswing after winning the Pac West 7s, while Fresno State was a creditable 3-3 in conference play last year. 

Sac State is one of the new teams, and visits San Jose State Saturday. 

“We are very excited to be in the Pac West Conference,” said Sac State Head Coach Adam Macrae. This despite returning only two starters from last season - hooker Zac Tai and No. 8 Travis Haugen.  

“Zac has put in a lot of work over the offseason and he is going to make some big plays this year.,”enthused Macrae. 

 Flyhalf Nick Weeder, and fullback Kahli Owens are strong attackers, and, said their coach, “I’m confident they will be under the posts each week.”

The game of the week is probably UC Davis at Chico State. These are two longtime rivals and while Davis struggled to find victories in the California Conference last season, they usually bring a physical, tough-minded approach to the game.

Their games against Chico State are usually battles, and it won’t be easy as Chico State is looking to win the conference.

“Having lost to Stanford in the final last year to come in second and feeling we have more depth normally would make me feel very good about this year,” said Coach Beau McSawin. But, we have both Davis and Sac State back, so there is a little mystery on how well we will fare against them.”

Chico has been working hard to hit the ground running, but, added McSwain, “you never know until you get into that first game, though! We are fortunate to have not graduated many player last year so we will be looking to a lot of players for their leadership of the team.”

Idle this week is San Francisco State. They start a week later, hosting Stanford.