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The Bears wrested the national championship back from the BYU Cougars in  a hard-fought 19-7 ruckfest at Stanford's Steuber Rugby Stadium this evening.

Cal held BYU scoreless until the 73rd minute.

Captain Eric Fry crossed the tryline first for the Bears, scoring wide to the right in the fourth minute. Hooker Neil Barrett then touched down Cal's second try in the 38th minute.

Flyhalf Keegan Englebrecht was the match's high scorer, booting  two penalty kicks and a drop goal for nine points.

The Bears finish the 2010 season undefeated in 26 matches, racking up 1,626 points and giving away 185.

Cal's rugby Bears will square off against the Cougars of BYU to reclaim the USA Rugby Division I national collegiate crown on Saturday. Tomorrow's match will be the fifth consecutive contest between Cal and BYU for the national title.

Cal defeated up-and-coming Arkansas State 83-37 in a semifinal match at Stanford's Steuber Rugby Stadium this afternoon. Earlier, BYU won its semifinal by a 63-28 margin over Army.

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Who wouldn't want to spend a summer weekend in Columbus, Ohio?

Let me rephrase that.

If you had the chance to watch Cal play seven-a-side rugby against a bevy of marquee schools, are willing to run the risk of being seen on national television and snag some seats for your crew at half-price, would you spend a summer weekend in Columbus?

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It's a relatively quiet Saturday for college rugby as the national play-offs loom.

The only score to report so far is from Friday night's Army-Navy Classic where the #24 midshipmen edged the #6 cadets 13-11 at Annapolis, Md.

Navy didn't make it to next week's national Round of 16, but Army did. The West Pointers are seeded fourth in the championship and will face 13th-seeded Tennessee on Saturday.

Cal remains the odds-on tournament favorite, but there are other interesting handicapping opportunities. At the request of DBD'ers atomsareenough, TwistNHook and solarise, herewith are presented some tidbits for the rugby-starved.

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The broadcast schedule for the national collegiate rugby sevens invitational has been set for the June 5-6 weekend.

The round-robin tournament will feature 16 marquee schools, including Cal, Arizona, Arizona State, Army, Bowling Green, Dartmouth, Florida, Harvard, Indiana, Navy, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Penn State, San Diego State, Tennessee, and Utah.

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The first round in this year's national rugby championship will feature a "beary" familiar rivalry for Berkeley fans.  Cal's #2-seeded Bears will meet the UCLA Bruins in pool play two weeks from now.

This afternoon, the Bruins defeated Cal Poly-SLO 24-19 in a Los Angeles playoff, winning the #15 seed in the USA Rugby Round of 16.

The ursine NorCal/SoCal face-off will take place in Marietta, Ga. on Saturday, Apr. 17 at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.  

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It'll be a NorCal/SoCal showdown in the upcoming USA Rugby nationals, but the #2-seeded Bears don't yet know if they'll be squaring off against UCLA or Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo.

As of today's territorial play-off action, all but three berths in the Round of 16 are filled. Cal is set to meet the eventual #15 seed, to be determined in a contest between UCLA and Cal Poly next Saturday in Los Angeles.

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Cal’s rugby Bears won their fourth consecutive World Cup series against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds with a 41-10 victory in Vancouver today.

The Berkeley lads came to the match with a 32-point margin from the Strawberry Canyon opener played Feb. 24. This year’s Cup was secured by Cal’s largest margin -- 63 points -- in 14 years.

In 2002, the Bears ran up a 34-point lead in the Cup’s first match, but finished with only a 45-point edge.

In the last 14 years, the Bears have lost the Cup series only three times -- in 2000, 2004 and 2006.

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Cal's #1-ranked ruggers bid farewell to Witter Rugby Field before a sell-out Homecoming crowd with a near-shutout over #3 St. Mary's College. With the victory, the Bears win a local play-off bye and earn the #2 seed in the upcoming national championships. Cal will meet either Cal Poly SLO or UCLA in Round of 16 play in Marietta, Ga.on April 17.

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Cal rugby coach Jack Clark sometimes likes to mix things up. In Saturday’s match against Chico State, Clark bumped senior James Bailes forward from his usual fullback position to flyhalf.

The moved paid off handsomely. By halftime, the #1-ranked  Bears had racked up a 52-0 shutout against the Wildcats, giving Clark the  scoring cushion needed to relieve some of his seniors. Freshman forwards were rotated in at the interval to gain some valuable match experience.

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A half-dozen slots in the USA Rugby Collegiate Men's Division I national championship round of 16 have been decided by weekend play. Cal still needs to put away Chico State (March 13) and St. Mary's (March 20) to earn a second seed -- and a NorCal play-off "bye" -- in the national tournament.

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Cal's rugby squad is the envy (and often the HATED envy) of many other collegiate programs. Rugby Magazine's senior editor Alex Goff explains why ...

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The University of California has been invited to field a team for the first collegiate sevens rugby championship in Columbus Ohio. In another first, the 16-side round robin tournament  will be nationally televised over four weekend hours by the National Broadcasting Company (Bay Area affiliate KNTV, Channel 11).

Sevens rugby, to be introduced as an Olympic sport in the 2016 games, is a short-form version of the collegiate game that Cal has played for 128 years. Seven-a-side play and seven-minute halves make for a faster-paced game more appealing to an American television audience than the traditional 80-minute rugby union match. 

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Cal's rugby Bears were forced to take a "bye" this weekend in the wake of a rain-drenched spring schedule. Next Saturday, the Berkeley ruggers will travel to CSU-Chico for a weather-postponed league contest against the Wildcats before meeting their final NorCal opponent, St. Mary's College, at Witter Rugby Field on March 20.

While the Bears were idled, Cal's potential competitiors in the upcoming national 15s championships were busy.

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Cal's most likely rival in the USA Rugby Nationals, Brigham Young University, took its first loss since 2008 at the hands of Super League's Denver Barbarians this weekend.

The Cougars were edged 18-21, largely due to a disallowed try.

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The opener of the two-match “World Cup” was won by California at Witter Rugby Field Wednesday when the Bears defeated the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in a 39-7 bruiser. California will travel to Vancouver to face the Birds in the Cup’s second stanza on March 24 with a comfortable 32-point advantage, the largest since 2002.

The World Cup is an 89 year-old annual tradition named for the Vancouver World newspaper, its one-time sponsor. Cal has retained the Cup since 2007 and won the series in seven of the past ten years.

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