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Cal Rugby three-peats as Collegiate Rugby Championships 7s Champions

Phew, that was a thrilling OT win, but the California Golden Bears triumphed over the Kutztown Golden Bears by a 17-12 OT margin in the CRC finals for the 2nd straight year to give the Bears their third rugby 7s national title.

By Ruey Yen
The California Golden Bears three-peat as Rugby 7s national champions!
The California Golden Bears three-peat as Rugby 7s national champions!
Ruey Yen

UPDATED: Watch the highlights below (I actually didn't realize how close Battaglia got to a go-ahead try at the end of the 1st half until I saw this).

In one nifty run through the Kutztown defense in sudden death overtime, Jake Anderson ended his collegiate career, the 2014-15 Cal rugby season, and the 2015 Collegiate Rugby Championships (CRC) tournament to give the California Golden Bears their 3rd straight rugby 7s national title.

Deservingly, Jake Anderson won the tournament MVP honor.

A senior laden Cal squad overcame an injury (suffered during the Varsity Cup final - the Rugby 15s championship game at the beginning of the month) to star flyback Russell Webb, who has been instrumental in the past two CRC wins. The special senior trio of Anderson, Alec Gletzer, and Andrew Battaglia each closed their storied Cal career today with pivotal contributions on all three CRC titles.

It was a physical and back-and-forth match between the two Golden Bears squads. Kutztown scored first but the Bears answered. Cal nearly went ahead at the closing seconds of the first half but Battaglia stepped on the line as he crossed the goal line and a try was not awarded.

With a 7-7 tie going into the second half, the Bears struck first after the intermission, scoring an unconverted try. While pushing for a second score, the Bears committed a costly turnover to allow Kutztown to equalize with a try down the corner. Fortunately, their conversion attempt was also no good. Just when regulation is about to be over, things got really physical, leading to this:

Nevertheless, the Cal Bears survived Kutztown with possession first in the sudden victory overtime. Once the Bears got the ball pack, Jake Anderson ran free through the middle to send the Cal bench into a frenzy. California Golden Bears win a 17-12 OT decision over Kutztown, who has a bit of a home field advantage coming from about an hour north of Philadelphia.

Congratulations to the Cal Rugby men, again with an inspired performance just when it mattered the most. Bears had breed through the quarterfinal and semifinals earlier today with a 33-0 win over Michigan and a 33-5 win over Life.

GO BEARS!

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