SALT LAKE CITY – California climbed back from a 14-point deficit and scored four tries to Brigham Young's three, but the Golden Bears fell short, 30-27, to the Cougars in the Penn Mutual Varsity Cup National Rugby Championship final Saturday in Rio Tinto Stadium.
Co-captain Jake Anderson had 12 points on a try, one penalty (1-for-1) and two conversions (2-of-4) as the leading scorer for the Bears, who end their 15s season at 17-2. BYU flyhalf Jonny Linehan had 15 points on three penalties (3-for-3) and three conversions (3-of-3) for the Cougars, who completed an undefeated, 14-0 season in their third straight championship meeting with Cal. This 2015 edition of the Varsity Cup was the second title tilt in the past three years to be decided by only three points.
“The victory was there for us, but we weren't good enough in the first half,” said head coach Jack Clark. “We were plenty good enough in the second half, scoring four tries to one, but we still probably left some points unscored and really struggled with the referee and assistant referees.”
Despite achieving a territorial advantage over their counterparts over 80 minutes in front of a partial BYU crowd complemented by a strong contingent of Cal supporters, the Rugby Bears had the most trouble in the first 40 minutes, putting the ball on the deck and failing to capitalize on chances that might have put them over the top against a tenacious Cougars side.
“It hurts to lose but I'm very proud to represent this team and University,” Anderson said. “We're not going to sulk.”
After starting the contest well and stealing a BYU lineout to put the Cougars on defense near midfield, the Cal attack backfired when an offload by scrumhalf Paul Bosco fell into the hands of BYU center Seki Kofe, who raced back the other way for the first try of the match at minute seven.
Linehan connected from 36 meters on a penalty four minutes later and the Bears struggled to stay accurate with their passes before a BYU penalty gave Cal's fullback the opportunity to put his side on the board with a 36-meter penalty for a 10-3 score after 15 minutes of play.
Cal held firm during ensuing BYU attacks but could not culminate its counter attacks with scores, and nine minutes later, BYU winger Josh Anderson took an offload from outside center Josh Whippy for a try that Linehan converted to put the Bears in a 17-3 hole at halftime.
Cal came out strong after the break, earning two penalties, the latter after which Bosco tapped and dove into the try zone for the Bears' first five-pointer of the day, and Anderson converted to trim BYU's lead to 17-10. Eight minutes later, Anderson scored a streaking try down the right sideline in the 50th minute but missed the conversion on a tough angle to put the score at 17-15 in favor of the Cougars.
Linehan took the lead back to five points at 20-15 with his second penalty kick eight minutes later; then, in the 60th minute, the flyhalf from New Zealand angled a drop kick into the right corner that substitute center Jared Whippy, the Fijian twin brother of teammate Josh, was able to wrangle over the head of Miles Honens for a try, bringing the Bears' deficit to 12 points with 20 minutes to play.
The Bears wasted no time answering back as hooker Michael Bush scored a try two minutes later, after which Anderson unluckily missed a makeable conversion. When Linehan put his third penalty through the posts three minutes later, Cal needed to overcome a 10-point disadvantage with 15 minutes remaining.
The Bears poured on the pressure but BYU would not relent until Harry Adolphus broke through midfield and ran to the 22 before feeding Anthony Salaber, who scored a try that was converted by Anderson with less than five minutes remaining.
Enough time for one last assault kept a comeback in the realm of possibility, but a final knock-on sealed Cal's fate and gave the title to the Cougars for the third straight season of 15s. It was the ninth championship meeting in the past 10 years between the two programs and their fourth championship meeting to be decided by three points. The championship series between BYU and the Bears now stands at 5-4 in favor of Cal and the Blue and Gold maintain a 10-4 all-time series lead over their rivals from Provo.
“I'm proud of everyone who played today,” said co-captain Alec Gletzer. “We gave it our best effort. Now we will put our focus on 7s.”
The Bears return to Berkeley to prepare for final exams before converting their training regimen back to the Olympic form of the sport, in which Cal will compete at the 2015 Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship May 30-31 in Philadelphia, where the Blue and Gold have won two consecutive national championships in 7s.
The Scoring Timeline vs. BYU
07:00 BYU (Seki Kofe) 5, (Jonny Linehan) 2
11:00 BYU (Jonny Linehan) 3
15:00 Jake Anderson 3
24:00 BYU (Josh Anderson) 5, (Jonny Linehan) 2
Halftime Score: BYU 17, California 3
42:00 Paul Bosco 5, Jake Anderson 2
50:00 Jake Anderson 5
58:00 BYU (Jonny Linehan) 3
60:00 BYU (Jared Whippy) 5, (Jonny Linehan) 2
62:00 Michael Bush 5
65:00 BYU (Jonny Linehan) 3
74:00 Anthony Salaber 5, Jake Anderson 2
Final Score: BYU 30, California 27
The Team vs. BYU
15. Anderson, 14. Battaglia, 13. Adolphus, 12. A. Salaber, 11. Honens, 10. Webb, 9. Bosco (Boyer @ 55:00), 1. Walsh, 2. Bush, 3. Vrame (Sullivan @ 68:00), 4. Kondrat, 5. Sina (Zerbino @ 72:00), 6. Hendrickson (Tandy @ 44:00, Gaffney @ 67:00, Tandy @ 74:00), 7. Gletzer, 8. Sweet
