Cal Rugby wins second straight PAC Rugby Conference 15s title

No.1 Cal Rugby is the latest Cal team to win a conference championship. By beating No.8 Utah 43-31 on Saturday, the Bears concluded conference play with a 5-0 record and win the PAC Rugby Conference 15s title. For the season, the Bears beat Oregon State 134-0, UCLA 32-10, Arizona State 76-18, Arizona 78-7, and today's win over Utah. Leland Stanford Junior University does not field a rugby squad that is serious enough to compete in the PAC Rugby Conference.

In Saturday's game, the Bears were able to win despite missing their captain and reigning player of the year Seamus Kelly, who is with the U.S. National Team, or their All-American fullback in Jake Anderson who is out with an injury.

Both Josh Tucker and Tiaan De Nysschen scored two tries apiece to lead the Bears. The Full scoring timeline is below:

02:00 Josh Tucker 5, Harry Adolphus 2

07:00 Tanner Mohr 5, Harry Adolphus 2

11:00 James Kondrat 5

15:00 Utah (Jacob Morrison) 5

30:00 Tiaan De Nysschen 5, Harry Adolphus 2

36:00 Utah (Matt Ball) 5

Halftime Score: California 26, Utah 10

41:00 Josh Tucker 5, Harry Adolphus 2

44:00 Utah (Matt Ball) 5, (Tonata Lauti) 2

67:00 Harry Adolphus 3

73:00 Utah (Austin Taylor) 5, (Tonata Lauti) 2

78:00 Tiaan De Nysschen 5, Harry Adolphus 2

80:00 Utah (Taylor Thomas) 5, (Tonata Lauti) 2

Final Score: California 43, Utah 31

The Team vs. Utah

15. Adolphus, 14. Tucker, 13. Harrington (A. Salaber @ 21:00), 12. Braun (Harrington @ 21:00), 11. Milne, 10. Webb, 9. Bosco (Boyer @ 50:00), 1. Mohr (Walsh @ 61:00), 2. Bush (Mohr @ 61:00), 3. Vrame, 4. Kondrat (Bowman @ 72:00), 5. Zerbino, 6. O’Beirne (Tandy @ 67:00), 7. Gletzer, 8. De Nysschen

While this conference championship is definitely expected by the fans, it is important to note that the rest of the PAC have really been improving in recent years, thanks in a great part by efforts from Cal's very own Jack Clark to grow the sport.

Up next for the Bears, the Bears will host Dartmouth on Monday night for a special St. Patrick's Day contest against the Big Green (not sure if the team wants you to wear green to that match). Then there is the away leg of the "World Cup" match with UBC at 1pm next Sunday on March 23rd. Bears also has a big match against St. Mary's on Saturday April 5th at 1pm in Moraga.

After that the Varsity Cup will commence as the Bears look to win their first Varsity Cup after losing to BYU in the finale of the inaugural contest last year.

For those Cal fans who may be jaded by all these conference championships (men's track and field winning MPSF, women's swimming and diving winning the Pac-12, men's swimming and diving winning the Pac-12, and now Rugby in the past 3 weeks), No.1 Cal women's swimming and diving will go for that NCAA championships this Thursday/Friday/Saturday. Check back to CGB for nightly open threads with online streaming information and score updates.

GO BEARS!