The California rugby team will play its first 15-a-side contest of the 2025-26 campaign Thursday evening against UC Santa Cruz. The reigning national XVs champion Golden Bears will make the trip to Aptos to face UC Santa Cruz at 6:30 p.m. PT at Cabrillo College.
 
Cal is coming off its sweep of the West Coast Sevens circuit in which its top side went undefeated and claimed all three tournament titles in Los Angeles, Stanford and San Diego. The Bears spent most of the fall semester training in the Olympic form of the game before turning their focus to XVs play over the last four weeks.
 
The last time the two teams met, Cal shut out UC Santa Cruz in the Bears' home opener last season at Witter Rugby Field on Jan. 25, 2025. Cal's upperclassmen scored 18 unanswered tries in the match.
 
The Bears last played a regular-season road contest against UCSC on April 1, 2012. Cal shut out UCSC with a squad of underclassmen who later went on to be national champions, All-Americans and international rugby players, including Andrew Battaglia, Nicklas Boyer, Michael Bush and Scott Walsh.
 
The Bears will likely send a squad of mostly freshmen and sophomores to face UCSC. A handful saw action in sevens matches, including freshmen John Warren and Gur Levy and sophomore Noa Grasse, who all featured for Cal's top side. Sophomores Chris Biller, Seamus Deely, Filip Edstrom, Masi Koi and Oliver Teague – all of whom received significant playing time last year as freshmen – also contributed to Cal's sevens success this fall, with Teague earning Man of the Tournament honors at the WC7s Stanford.
 
The forwards will be eager to get in on their first action of the 2025-26 campaign. Sophomore prop Oliver Kirk, a returning starter from last year, will captain the side.
 
"In truth, I have no idea if the early focus we're putting on our underclassmen is a smart approach, but we want to gauge which frosh/soph have their hand up to help the varsity this coming spring," Cal head coach Jack Clark said. "Our best players are chomping at the bit, whilst the coaching staff sorts through the whole of the roster. It must be exciting for the young players and frustrating for our best players."
 
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