Much is on the line this weekend when Claremont Colleges face off with UC Riverside.

This is the Gold Coast DII Conference, which is mostly NSCRO teams - small colleges - and the winner of this weekend’s game will likely be the conference champions.

Both Claremont and Riverside are 4-0, but Claremont leads with more bonus points. And expect these teams to be in strong positions next year, too, as both have plenty of young players on their squads.

“Last year we had a really good recruiting year,” said Claremont Colleges Head Coach Scott Bracken. “Most of our players were freshmen last year, so now we have another year of experience under our belt. We’re still very young but our understanding of the game  if getting better.”

“We thought this year would be more of a building-up kind of year,” said UC Riverside Head Coach Ryan Harris. “Only two or three of our players are going to graduate. So the guys are still trying to figure the game out.”

No. 8 Damian Salazar is a co-captain and playing extremely well, while co-captain Javier Carlos is a stalwart at scrumhalf. Asa Garrett and Jordan McMichael have also had good season. But everyone is coming along well, said Harris. They’ve won all four games despite starting slowly each time. This includes a against Occidental where they came back from 19-0 down.

“It’s taken them a while to figure out what everyone’s doing,” said Harris. “But they’ve done it. They didn’t get down on themselves; they showed a lot of heart.”

Heart is common in the Claremont Colleges team, too. A small consortium of schools, Claremont has played at DI and DIA before. Going down to DII was a better fit, said Bracken, but they are also ready to move up to DIAA should they win the conference. 

“We’re used to punching above our weight,” he said. “We’re starting to get a lot of support on campus.”

The team moved to a new rugby field right in the middle of the McKenna school campus. It’s now a big event when the team plays, and with No. 8 Nick Urban powering through and scoring tries, they play an entertaining style of rugby.

“I think we’re on the right track,” said Bracken. “If we keep our recruiting going we’ll continue to get better.”

But right now it’s all about this weekend. Harris said he expects a tough, tight game, and both want the game badly.

Said Claremont’s Bracken, “we’ve already qualified for the NSCRO playoffs, but it would be nice to finish the league with a 6-0 record. That’s our goal.”