Cal Advances to Face Saint Mary's in National Rugby Semifinals

Cal's rugby squad rolled to big early lead and easily defeated Arizona 74-45 on Saturday, setting up a match against East Bay rival Saints Mary’s next Saturday in the semifinals of the national collegiate rugby championships.

While Cal (12-1) had little trouble getting past the Wildcats, Saint Mary’s had to rally from a 24-17 deficit to get past Central Washington 53-48 in a nail-biter in Moraga, California.

So it will be the Gaels and Cal in a rematch of their riveting match that took place on March 22 at Cal.

The winner of Cal’s home game next Saturday against Saint Mary’s will advance to the May 3 national championship game in Indianapolis against either Life University or Lindenwood. Life squeezed past Army 18-17 in its quarterfinal match while Lindenwood upset Navy, the No. 2 seed in the East, by a 10-3 score.

Cal, the top seed in the West Region, was the only one of Saturday’s winners that advanced without a struggle. The Bears blew out to a quick 22-0 lead, held a 41-7 lead at halftime and had a 46-7 advantage early in the second half.

Joe Kirsten and Masi Koi scored three tries apiece for Cal, which stayed comfortably ahead throughout. Arizona scored 14 points in the final four minutes of the contest to make the final score look respectable.

The challenge will be considerably greater against Saint Mary’s, the defending national champion, which defeated Cal 34-16 in the quarterfinals of last year’s national rugby championships. But that game was in Moraga, and this year’s semifinal contest will be at Cal’s Witter Rugby Field. It was at that same Cal venue that the two East Bay rivals engaged in a back-and-forth contest that went down to the final seconds before the Golden Bears claimed the three-point victory in both teams’ final regular-season game.

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