AUSTIN, Texas – Nine new starters, including four sophomores in the forwards, were joined by five more frosh-sophs who came on as replacements as the Golden Bears scored 16 tries to defeat Texas, 100-7, in the quarterfinals of the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup National Rugby Championship Saturday at the Huns RFC Rugby Grounds.
California (16-1) advances to the Varsity Cup semifinals, where it will face Navy next Saturday, April 18, on Witter Rugby Field at 1:30 p.m.
“With due respect to Texas and what the Longhorns are building, the single-elimination postseason format leaves precious little time to spend on this outcome,” said head coach Jack Clark. “The United States of America Naval Academy and a bunch of well-coached stud guys are visiting Strawberry Canyon next Saturday. Needless to say, they have our respect and they demand our focus."
Co-captain and fullback Jake Anderson, one of the small handful of starters selected Saturday, exited in the 22nd minute after scoring a-half hat trick, and was joined in the three-try club later in the match by wing Lucas Dunne. The Bears went a combined 10-for-16 on conversion kicks (Anderson 3-of-6, Nicklas Boyer 3-of-6, Matthew Coyle 4-of-4) while starving the Longhorns of possession for most of the contest.
The Blue and Gold held the opposition to one unconverted try, which came in the 53rd minute off an interception by UT co-captain Taylor Hayes and was converted by Steve Taylor.
The intercepted pass was one of a few handling errors that Cal is sure to examine on film back in Berkeley, but on the whole, the Bears can leave Texas satisfied that they played smart rugby in varying conditions to advance to the Varsity Cup semis.
Dunne played a strong 80 minutes on the wing and typified some of Cal's objectives in the course of scoring his third try. The winger started and finished the sequence that ended with his score in the 69th minute, running hard underneath and catching a box kick in the air, then staying on the job to make himself available for a pass he took to sprint into the try zone three phases later.
“That's what this trip was all about, to come out and play with focus,” Dunne said. “It was also good for a lot of guys to get minutes under their belt. Now it starts tomorrow with Navy. That's our next objective.”
Texas (7-4) had no answer for a Cal team that was poised for whatever came its way in weather conditions that shifted from humid to rainy over the course of the match.
“I expected to have more possession but Cal was very clinical today,” said Longhorns head coach Chris Hopps. “You could see they took pride in the physical execution.”
“The ball did get slick but we managed it,” said starting scrumhalf Boyer. “It wasn't perfect, but overall, pretty good.”
Navy advanced to the semifinals Saturday with its 24-23 win over Clemson in Annapolis, Md., sending the Midshipmen to a matchup with Cal that mirrors the 2013 Varsity Cup semifinal, which saw the Bears defeat Navy on Witter Rugby Field in the first year of the Varsity Cup.
“As a team we discussed the significance of continuing to build momentum and we got that job done today,” said Anderson. “We know that we still have better play in us and we'll look to reveal that at home next weekend. It's an honor to host the semifinal and have our fans out again on Witter. We have a lot of respect for the Naval Academy and know we'll have our work cut out for us next weekend against some tough men.”
The other Varsity Cup quarterfinals on Saturday took place in Los Angeles, where Brigham Young beat UCLA, 45-16, and Ellensburg, Wash., where Central Washington defeated Utah, 18-7. BYU will face Central Washington in the second Varsity Cup semifinal on April 18 in Provo, Utah.
The Varsity Cup national championship final takes place Saturday, May 2, at Rio Tinto Stadium outside of Salt Lake City, televised by NBC Sports Network.
The Penn Mutual Varsity Cup National Rugby Championship is the premier rugby postseason in the United States. Since the first National Collegiate Championship, Varsity Cup universities have won a total of 31 national titles in a span of 33 years. Moreover, Varsity Cup universities have earned 68 final four places during this same period, with Air force, Arkansas State, BYU, Cal, Dartmouth, Navy and Utah all having played their way to the final four. Since the inception of the Varsity Cup National Championship, Central Washington University and UCLA have added to the Varsity Cup's list of final four participants. This brings total Varsity Cup university final four appearances to 76 over the course of 35 years. Varsity Cup universities have been crowned National Champions a total of 33 times in the 35-year history of the National Collegiate Championships.
Following the conclusion of their 15s season, the Bears will prepare to compete at the 2015 Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship May 30-31 in Philadelphia, where Cal has won two consecutive national championships in 7s.
The Scoring Timeline vs. Texas
02:00 Jake Anderson 5
04:00 Eakalafi Okusi 5, Jake Anderson 2
08:00 Jake Anderson 5
10:00 Jake Anderson 5, 2
13:00 Patrick Barrientes 5
20:00 Nick Salaber 5, Jake Anderson 2
28:00 Lucas Dunne 5
30:00 Jesse Milne 5, Nicklas Boyer 2
34:00 Lucas Dunne 5, Nicklas Boyer 2
Halftime Score: California 55, Texas 0
45:00 Connor Sweet 5, Nicklas Boyer 2
53:00 UT (Taylor Hayes) 5, (Steve Taylor) 2
58:00 Tomas Zerbino 5
62:00 Patrick Barrientes 5
66:00 Drew Gaffney 5, Matthew Coyle 2
69:00 Lucas Dunne 5, Matthew Coyle 2
72:00 Brian Joyce 5, Matthew Coyle 2
75:00 Drew Gaffney 5, Matthew Coyle 2
Final Score: California 100, Texas 7
The Team vs. Texas
15. Anderson (Thornton @ 22:00), 14. Milne (Flynn @ 74:00), 13. Barrientes, 12. Okusi, 11. Dunne, 10. Webb (Coyle @ 50:00), 9. Boyer (Goodwin @ 63:00), 1. Walsh (Joyce @ 40:00), 2. Haynes, 3. Sullivan, 4. Zerbino, 5. Sina (Damas @ 40:00), 6. N. Salaber, 7. Tandy, 8. Sweet (Gaffney @ 54:00)
