Since the Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC) West contests its 15s season in the spring, the league held a national qualifier for the USA Rugby College 7s National Championship in early November. Fifteens is still the focus of the fall pre-season, but timing wise, it makes more sense than cramming in a qualifier at the end of the spring 15s season. [Remember, too, that the 7s national championship occurs 2-3 weeks after the DI/II spring 15s championship.]
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In a bit of a shakeup to recent years, Cal won the automatic 7s qualifier at Stanford in early November. Senior leaders Hope Cooper and Alyssa Collins, who have been integral to the Bears’ rebuild the last four years, hope it’s a sign of things to come.
“At the end of the tournament, after the trophy, medals and pictures of the trophy and medals, I said to the players: Let’s chase this feeling. This is what it feels like to win and now we know how to do it,” Collins said. “We haven’t had luck in 15s the last few years, so let’s keep going for this.”
There have been some coaching iterations after long-time leader Ellen Owens retired in 2013. When Cooper and Collins joined as freshmen, they learned the sport under Eagle Mari Triplett. The following year saw Elvis Seveali’i take over, and he’s in his third season with the team now.
“When Hope and I joined there weren’t many returners. There were some vets, probably 5-6, who had played a year or two. Now we have 12, 15, in our senior class,” Collins reflected on the growth of the team. “But a lot of credit has to go to those seniors who were here when we were freshmen. They set a strong basis after having lost a lot of people.”
“We’ve definitely been making that transition the last couple of years into a competitive team,” Cooper added. “People are starting to think about the work and dedication that need to be put into it. It’s special for us this year because we’ve really been working toward this for a long time. A lot of people are putting in the hours to see what we can do.”
Cooper is the recruitment and retention chair, and she’s helped build a roster that hovers around 40 players and includes recruits with high school or overseas experience. Collins is the VP but also covering for the president who is currently studying abroad.
“It can be a lot to run your own team but it allows us to make our team exactly how we want it,” Collins said. “It’s a unique experience when you want to compete at the highest level.”
For example, the Stanford 7s qualifier occurred on the same weekend as the Scrum By The Sea 15s tournament in SoCal. Cal sent one team to Palo Alto and another to San Diego, so it could qualify for 7s nationals and continue that rookie education all in the same weekend. The rest of the fall was all 15s scrimmages against teams like UC Davis, Chico State, Sacramento State as well as sister club Berkeley All Blues. It made for a busy, fruitful pre-season.
For the double-event weekend, Cal had be thoughtful about its division of personnel.
“In some regards we took the more experienced players [to Stanford] who did 7s before but we had a few rookies with us who did compete,” said Cooper, who along with Collins, has played three summer 7s seasons with the Berkeley All Blues. “We want to build the recruits and make sure we have a deep bench for the future, so we sent some vets to Scrum By The Sea who may have been able to play at the qualifier.
“The goal definitely was to win the tournament,” Collins added. “In the last three tournaments before that, we placed second in each one. We needed to turn from a winning team into a championship team. Our coach challenged us to, too: What would a championship team look like?”
Cal joined Stanford, Chico State, Fresno State and the University of San Francisco in the 7s qualifier, and started the day with a 19-10 loss to the Cardinal. A championship team can assess its shortcomings and make those important adjustments going forward.
“We knew we had the skills. It comes down to our ability to just fight until the end essentially,” Cooper said. “It comes down to mentality. It doesn’t matter if you’re scored on; take the next opportunity to score.”
Cal followed with wins against USF, Chico State and Fresno State to go 3-1 in round robin play.
“It was interesting to play four different styles of play across five games [when including the final],” Collins said. “Stanford played really soft but organized defense, and let us have the gainline but always shut us down. Chico was more physical and we always prepare for that. Fresno was quick and tried to go around the sides but luckily we have speed that could cover that. USF played a direct game as well. It was hard and challenging and also stimulating to adapt to them.”
And what did the opposition have to contend with?
“I would want them to say that we’re patient when it comes to attack and organized on defense,” Collins hypothesized the field’s take on Cal. “Having Denecia [Fernandes] and me as sweepers, we can organize everyone around the breakdown and call people out of counter-rucks. We were counter-rucking a lot when we should have been pulling out early on, and that loosened the defensive line. On offense, we have threats all around the field. Denecia is amazing on the wing. But once people figured out she had crazy speed and started marking her and overcommitting, it opened up gaps that others took.”
That set up a rematch of Cal vs. Stanford in the final.
“For me, the final started off wishy-washy. We traded scores but the mentality was off,” Cooper said. “Then we got the ball back, took a deep breath, and started to play the game we’ve been playing all day. Denecia got a couple more runs and we were able to spread them out a bit. Everyone was a little tired because of the structure of the tournament – everyone played five games in one day – but we have a deep bench and took advantage. We had the skills, got the ball out wide and looked up-field for gaps.”
“For me, personally, it really came down to grit and us wanting it more than them,” Collins talked difference-makers. “In years past we haven’t been the strongest team in the contact area but I can’t think of one missed tackle all weekend. Once we put our head down, we were going to do what we set out to do and we were going to win.”
Once Cal went up by a try, the squad settled down and ran out a 24-5 win. The Bears will now head to the 2020 USA Rugby College 7s National Championship.
“We were watching film … I was next to Hope and I looked at her a little shocked. Izzy Roberson jumped on my back from behind,” Collins recounted that final-whistle moment. “For me and Hope – we haven’t been in this position with this team, and while we’ve been to nationals with the All Blues, it’s definitely a unique thing doing it with people so close to us. We’re so excited for the future.”
Fernandes was named tournament MVP, and Collins supported the accolade.
“We got Izzy Roberson back from injury, so Denecia was able to move from scrumhalf to wing, where her speed is more useful,” the VP said. “I can’t stop giving her credit because she did a lot of work. She turned on her speed and we wouldn’t have won the championship without her.”
Collins also called out rookie Taylor Lan, who made the roster and started every game, as well as Kara Chuang, who showed great versatility moving from the backs to the forwards and led in the way of work rate.
“We’re definitely proceeding with caution,” Cooper suggested that there’s work to be done before christening the season a special one. “This is the year we have an opportunity to make it happen. Over the years we have had potential but this is the first time we’re ready to buckle down and use that potential and see what we can do with it. Winning this year’s tournament gives us perspective of what it feels like to win and we’re not complacent.”
The PMRC 15s season begins after the winter break and the Bears hope to roll this momentum into another post-season run before transitioning back to 7s in May.
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