Feb. 15, 2006

BERKELEY - One of the storied rivalries in collegiate rugby resumed today as the California Golden Bears jumped out to a 22-point advantage and then held on for a 35-28 win in the first leg of the annual Word Cup series against University of British Columbia.

A sizzling first 40 minutes of rugby left Cal with a 15-point halftime lead that the T-Birds could not surmount. The Bears' first-half onslaught was led by flyhalf Rob Weedon, who accounted for 15 points, and fullback David Poettcker, who dotted down twice.

Poetteker, who scored one of his tries on a 50-meter ball-faking jaunt that kept five would-be tacklers reaching in vain, left the match with cramps late in the second half, but not until after he had admirably filled his role as a late addition to the lineup at fullback, where Cal has suddenly become thin with injuries. "You get a little more space there than I'm used to at flyhalf," said Poetteker, "and when you get some gaps, it becomes a lot of fun because you get to go for a nice, long run."

Cal started two freshmen and two sophomores among the forwards, who came together and synchronized with the backs to meet the challenge set forth by a physical and disciplined Thunderbird team.

Coach Jack Clark, expanding beyond his usual performance-only analysis, praised the victory as "a quality win and an important victory for our supporter base. We are a long way from the finished product, but the boys will be happy with that result."

UBC coach Spencer McTavish tipped his hat to the "first-half fluidity of the Cal team, some of the best rugby I've seen coming out of them for a while. They had power out of the forwards and finesse in the backs, and they were working it back and forth.

"We were certainly prepared -- we came down here and had some good practices -- but it could have been a case of maybe they were too ready, or too nervous, or too uptight. But our boys did have the gumption to come back in the second half and put some pressure on the Cal team."

Cal can't look ahead to its rematch with UBC just yet. The Bears have seven opponents on their schedule before they travel to Vancouver for the second game of the World Cup, which goes to the team with the highest aggregate score over two games. But as they left the field on Wednesday, the Bears were happy to get an all-important first victory.

"They challenge us physically, and it's an advantage for us to go there up seven because it's tough playing at UBC," said senior back row and match-day captain Andrew Lindsey. "We prepared and performed pretty well. We still have tons of stuff to work on, but it was gutsy that we came out and beat them here today."

Added sophomore hooker Chris Biller, "Hopefully we can go up there and get another win, beat them twice the old-fashioned way."

The Scoring Timeline vs. UBC:

02:00 David Poettcker 5

05:00 UBC 3

11:00 Rob Weedon 3

20:00 David Poettcker 5, Rob Weedon 2

23:00 Ryan Donnelly 5

25:00 UBC 5

31:00 Rob Weedon 5, 2

33:00 Rob Weedon 3

36:00 UBC 5, 2

Half Time: California 30, UBC 15

48:00 UBC 3

55:00 Joe Welch 5

63:00 UBC 3

70:00 UBC 5, 2

Final Score: California 35, UBC 28

The Team vs. British Columbia:

15. Poettcker (Lee @ 80:00), 14. Miller, 13. Brogan, 12. Donnelly, 11. Kidd, 10. Weedon, 9. Triplett (Wright @ 53:00), 1. Dorosti, 2. Biller, 3. Kroll (Sehr @ 64:00), 4. Snellgrove (J. Stanfill @ 53:00), 5. Stanfill, L., 6. Fry, 7. Welch, 8. Lindsey©