Jan. 28, 2006
BERKELEY, Calif. - Cal took its record to 7-0 and started local play on the right foot with a 37-0 shutout against UC Davis on Saturday. The Bears' powerful forward play combined with air and ground attacks that gathered momentum as the match wore on, leading to five Cal tries, three of which came from Rob Weedon, who tallied 17 points on the day.
UC Davis was determined to control play near the forwards around every breakdown, but Cal's pack was too talented and aware to allow the Aggies much progress with the ball.
Freshman flanker Eric Fry, who hails from Davis, gave the Aggies credit for "coming at us really hard on the fringes. It was tough taking them down, but we manned up and did what we had to do. We did what we practiced."
Match captain and No. 8 Andrew Lindsey agreed. "Davis is not going to back down," he said. "But in the second half especially we took away their game plan by stopping them around the fringe of the rucks."
A propensity for penalties seemed to follow the Bears from last weekend's final match at the UCLA Tournament into today's contest. Whistles came against Cal at around a 5:1 ratio. UC Davis did well to use its advantage territorially, keeping the Bears pinned in their own half for much of the first 40 minutes.
The Bears got on the board in the eighth minute, however, when Weedon stole possession at midfield and fed it to fullback Connor O'Brien, who penetrated inside the 22 before finding flanker Joe Welch for a try in the left corner.
O'Brien kept the ball to score a try of his own nine minutes later, when Weedon froze the Aggies with a dummy switch with inside center Ryan Donnelly before feeding the fullback as he came into the line.
Weedon missed consecutive conversions before connecting on a penalty kick in the 35th minute to make the score 13-0. The Bears had played the previous nine minutes without lock Louis Stanfill, who received a yellow card for a technical infringement at a midfield ruck.
The senior flyhalf from West Vancouver, B.C., Canada, piled another 10 points into the scoring column early in the second half with a penalty kick followed by a converted try. The try came from 10 meters after a double-barreled dash from Donnelly and outside center Chase Brogan softened the Davis defense.
Donnelly dotted down 16 minutes later for a try, followed by prop Cyrus Dorosti in the 76th minute to round out the scoring for Cal.
UC Davis took possession close to the Cal goal line several times during the contest, but the Aggies could not muster a drive past determined Bear tackling.
Fourth-year UC Davis coach Steve Gray said the Aggies "played hard. We knew what Cal was going to do, but we couldn't stop it. Cal's in a different world than everybody else in college rugby, but I'd like to play them again. Playing them early in our league schedule makes the rest of the year a little easier."
In the reserve grade match that followed the first XV, Cal defeated UC Davis by a score of 60-5.
Cal travels to Nevada to take on UN Reno next Saturday, followed by a journey to San Diego State before returning home on Feb. 15 for the first match of the annual World Cup series against its Canadian rival, the University of British Columbia.
The Scoring Timeline vs. UC Davis:
08:00 Welch 5
17:00 O'Brien 5
35:00 Weedon 3
Half Time: California 13, UC Davis 0
42:00 Weedon 3
48:00 Weedon 5, 2
64:00 Donnelly 5, Weedon 2
76:00 Dorosti 5, Weedon 2
Final Score: California 37, UC Davis 0
The Team vs. UC Davis:
15. O'Brien (Taylor @ 59:00), 14. Harris, 13. Brogan, 12. Donnelly, 11. Kidd, 10. Weedon, 9. Wright, 1. Dorosti, 2. Biller, 3. Kroll, 4. Jesseman (Keady @ 61:00), 5. Stanfill, L. 6. Fry, T., 7. Welch (Sehr @ 74:00), 8. Lindsey ©
