Cal Retains Scrum Axe

Stanford, Ca. Thursday February 13th

The 2014 traditional big game rugby match marked the 113th time that the two rivals have fought for the honor of claiming the Scrum Axe, and the Cal Varsity program was again victorious with a 61-7 victory. Even in defeat to a largely reserve strength Cal side, the young Stanford squad that featured eight starting underclassmen (four freshmen and four sophomores) will take positives from their performance. Whilst Cal dominated technical aspects of the game such as the scrum, lineout and breakdown, they were also rushed into a number of mistakes by a determined Stanford pressure game. After a smartly taken try from the Cal scrum half from a dummy thirty meters from the line, Cal powered to three lineout drive tries in the first half alone as Stanford struggled to contain the opposing forward power. The scoring in the first half was complete when Stanford were driven off their own scrum and Cal shifted the ball wide left to outflank the scrambling defense.
Despite renewed defensive efforts at the beginning of the second half, the set piece once again let Stanford down, as another turnover at the scrum allowed Cal to secure their sixth try of the night. Stanford then responded with what would be the highlight of the game for the home side. A quick tap penalty by Alejandro Sanchez and a quick transfer by George Fullerton gave Chris Sebastian the time and space to step inside the drifting Cal defense and accelerate towards the tryline. Drew Lexmond converted to bring the score to 7-40. Three further Cal tries against a tiring Stanford defense took the final score to 7-61.
Ultimately, set piece difficulties and a high penalty count cost Stanford in terms of field position and possession, allowing the powerful Cal side the platform to exploit Stanford’s inexperience. Yet there were positives to take from a game in which Stanford stood up to the challenge and they will be keen to take the same intensity into the next round of conference play against San Jose State.

Team
1. Brown 2. Kim 3. Quigley 4. Carey 5. Barron 6. Ripert 7. Houghton-Berry 8. Agness (Captain) 9. A Sanchez 10. Lexmond 11. Odek
12. Fullerton 13. Sebastian 14. Greiner 15. Falkenhagen
16. Long 17. Hokanson 18. Herries 19. Perkins 20. McColl
21. Le Roux 22. Liljenquist

Next up – After the Chico State match was cancelled due to poor weather, Stanford return to conference play, hosting San Jose State this Saturday February 22nd at 3pm.