Feb. 28, 2006
BERKELEY - When the National Collegiate champion Golden Bears host Rugby Super League champion New York Athletic Club in Berkeley this weekend, perennial No. 1 Cal will be an underdog while still wearing its collegiate crown.
That's because NYAC visits Witter Rugby Field on Saturday at 1 p.m. with a roster almost identical to the one that brought Winged Foot its Super League title last June. Cal lost seven starters, including five All-Americans, from its 2005 title team by comparison.
"The NYAC will have every right to be supremely confident," said Cal head coach Jack Clark. "Although it's been a while since my playing days, my senior club, the Old Blues, were also national champs, and we would have laughed at the notion that a university team could compete with us. I don't think that much has changed. In the NYAC, we will have a very skilled, experienced and confident opponent to deal with."
NYAC's traveling team includes four Australians with international experience, a former member of the Auckland Marists in New Zealand, as well as several USA National Team trialists. Cal counters with a formidable squad, but certainly not the same team that won the national championship last May. The 2006 Bears count on a large contingent of freshmen and sophomores.
"Coaching the USA National Team [from 1993-99] provided me with some experience in competing against a superior opponent," said coach Clark. "There were several occasions where as an amateur team we were just out-gunned by a fully professional outfit. What that experience taught me was to always believe that if we got it right on the day and overachieved our potential, that anything was possible. And if you are at all resilient, as our lads are, then win, lose or draw, you're better off for the experience. It's important for our team to remember that this match is part of our development as a rugby team, an 80-minute ride to help us to reach our potential down the road."
The Bears' tests of skill and character come against a Winged Foot team that emerged as champion from the USA Rugby Super League, which features 16 senior teams based in major cities across the United States. Many of Cal's very best rugby players matriculate into Super League competition after graduation.
The Bears, now 11-0, take on NYAC as their fourth match in three weeks, which started with a seven-point victory over longtime rival University of British Columbia on Feb. 15.
The maturity level of the NYAC side will challenge the Bears most up front, where the visiting front row is comprised by the likes of Troy Bartley (age 32), Chris Smith (35) and Tony Nashawaty (34), who will do battle with Cal's university-aged undergraduates. The Bears have used several front-row combinations thus far, but look for sophomores Chris Biller and Kevin Kroll to join senior Cyrus Dorosti against Winged Foot.
The NYAC second row contains 6-4, 255-pound Adam Russell (32), who earned his first "Blue" playing for Oxford in 1999. He will most likely be joined by 6-8 Australian James McGeoch. The Bears plan to counter in the lock positions with junior Louis Stanfill and 19-year-old freshman Julian Snellgrove from nearby Tiburon, Calif.
Winged Foot's back row will have the addition of Super League MVP John Cronin, who has moved his 220 pounds from center to the flanker position to team up with likely starters Lou Ferrari and number eight Matt Rader.
Rader (28, 6-3, 235) is a former quarterback at Penn, where he led the Quakers to the Ivy League Championship in 1998 and threw for 3858 yards in his two years as a starter.
Cal's back row will be led by senior All-American Andrew Lindsey at number eight and supported by 18-year-old freshman flanker Eric Fry out of Jesuit High School in Carmichael, Calif. Missing from this trio is All-American flanker Rikus Pretorius, who is still slowed by off-season surgery. Fortunately for the Bears, 5-10, 189-pound junior Joe Welch has been in outstanding form all year.
Scrumhalf Chris Mayo will captain the New Yorkers. The 30-year-old former Australian Universities XV player is a live wire who will pair with flyhalf Aidan Mara, also 30, for a skilled and experienced combination.
Cal will need senior scrumhalf Andrew Johnson to pass a late fitness test, and if he's unable to go, senior Brendan Wright or junior transfer Zak Triplett (University of Aberdeen, Scotland) looks to get the nod. Certainly 22-year-old senior flyhalf Rob Weedon will be counted on like never before.
NYAC will pick its centers from a strong contingent of midfielders, including Ben Fraley, 30, a former Australian Under-21; AJ Goodman, 25, a 225-pound former Auckland Marist; Alister Greer, 30, a standout on the Northeast Representative side; and Brian O'Grady, 31, a former captain of the USA Development team. Players from this talented group could also push for a starting spot on the wing or at fullback, where only former Penn State all-star and current USA National Team pool member Dominic Mara looks to be assured of a position.
Cal will counter in the midfield with senior All-American inside center Ryan Donnelly and 22-year-old outside center Chase Brogan. Sophomores Scott Kidd and Connor O'Brien look to get the call on the wings.
With Chris Gurecki still out with injury, the Bears will select either 20-year-old Canadian David Poettcker or freshman Ryan Taylor to play fullback. Poettcker, at 5-7 and 158 pounds, is normally a flyhalf and has been recently deployed at fullback to provide cover for a string of injuries at the position.
Clark can see it going either way on Saturday. "I suppose there are two scenarios," he said. "The first is that we play to form as a competent university side and the AC plays to form as a competent senior club. Unfortunately, this means that the match could get totally away from us, a mismatch where they ship a ton of points against us.
"The other scenario is far more pleasant," Clark continued, "in that it's possible that we overachieve our age and ability level for 80 minutes, play better than we have any right to play, therefore hang around the match and make it competitive."
Make no mistake; Cal is a talented university team. The Bears returned five All-Americans from 2005 -- Biller and Dorosti in the front row, along with Donnelly, Lindsey and Stanfill -- and they have continued to improve (a sixth, Pretorius, has been out all season). Under head coach Jack Clark, in his 23rd year with an .844 winning percentage, the Bears' era of success has included 17 national titles -- including 12 in a row from 1991-2002 -- an impressive combined record of 29-1 against rugby powerhouses Army, Navy and Air Force; seven of the last nine World Cups vs. University of British Columbia, and a domestic winning streak of 98 games from 1985-96, followed immediately by a 70-game tear that lasted until 2003.
But on March 4, Cal will take its home field in the role of underdog against an extremely accomplished rugby team, unfamiliar territory that's sure to make for an exciting afternoon.
