Stanford, California – Thursday November 15th

Stanford opened the 2012-13 season with their first XV’s rugby game of the year vs. The California Maritime Academy on Thursday night, losing a close game 21-30. For Stanford, it was their first game of the season, and despite the score line, there were many positive to build from. In particular, the scrum was very strong for the Cardinal, and rookie freshmen Taylor Clayton (Two Tries), Wesley Greiner (One Try), and Jovi Rippert, as well as rookie junior Graham Thompson all had solid individual performances. The game was fast and looses, with Stanford putting little focus on attacking structure or tactical field positioning to this point. The Cardinal essentially played heads up rugby, which cost them field position and points at times, but also led to a lot of attacking flair and some flowing long range tries for the Cardinal. Moving forward, the Cardinal will begin to put more structure to their play, and finish the fall quarter with their annual Cardinal and White scrimmage Friday November 30th at 4:30pm.

In the 2nd XV’s match, Stanford defeated a large and physical Cal Maritime 24-5.

Highlights of both games can be seen here:

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Next Up: Cardinal and White Scrimmage – Friday November 30th at Steuber Rugby Stadium

Stanford 1st XV vs. Cal Maritime

Stanford Team:
1: Zach Yohannes 2: Jeremy Kim 3: Uche Omegara 4: Chris Herries 5: Austin Carey 6: Evan Bowechop 7: Graham Thompson 8: Gabe Martinez (James Spicer) 9: Masato Kuok 10: Jason Liljenquist 11: Oscar Sandoval 12: Dan Ibarra 13: Jovi Rippert 14: Taylor Claton 15: Rob Carrera (Wesley Greiner)

Scoring:
Halftime: Stanford 14- Cal Maritime 15
Final: Stanford 21- Cal Maritime 30
Stanford Scoring: Tries (Clayton-2, Greiner-1) Conversions (Liljenquist-3)

UCLA, California- November 3rd and 4th, 2012

Following a slow start that included two early pool play losses to UCLA (0-38) and Arizona (7-26), Stanford improved dramatically throughout the Pac-12 Sevens Championship to finish 2-3 and 10th overall. After their initial two pool round defeats, Stanford put in a much improved performance to beat Washington State (33-19) in their final pool play round, finishing 3rd in their pool. In day two, Stanford rallied back from a 0-19 deficit to defeat USC (21-19). In their final match of the tournament, Stanford lost a close match to a strong Washington team (7-17) in a game where Stanford played strong throughout, but one in which they narrowly missed many opportunities that could have turned the game the other way.

Despite the early losses, Stanford was able to consistently improve throughout the tournament and played their best rugby in the final three matches. As the youngest team in the tournament with five freshmen and six sophomores, it was great to see the team grow during the event and they showed promising signs for the future.

Cal went on to defeat Utah in the final to win the Pac-12 Championships, and all scores can be found here:

Day 1 Details:
http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6298-pac-rugby-7…

Day 2 Details:
http://www.rugbymag.com/news/colleges/collegiate-sevens/6305-cal-wins-pa…

See highlights of Stanford Tries here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFfiSmIDCbE&feature=g-upl

Stanford Team:
Daniel Ibarra, Masato Kuok, Jason Liljenquist, Gabe Martinez, Evan Bowechop, Austin Carey, Jeremy Kim, Alex Le Roux, Oscar Sandoval, Wesley Greiner, Jovi Rippert, Taylor Clayton, Daniel Benavides, and Sam Falkenhagen.

Next Up:
Stanford switches gears to focus on XV’s rugby, and will play Cal Maritime in a pre-season match on Thursday November 15th at Steuber Field (1st XV-4:30pm, 2nd XV- 6pm)