Men's Rugby & Cal's Excuses

http://www.dailycal.org/2016/05/04/cal-rugby-to-battle-byu-for-national-championship/



BYU to face Cal in the men's rugby championship. A Cal writer is complaining that BYU's success over Cal has been due mainly to older players.

The Bears’ arch rival, BYU, has ridden a wealth of older players to five of the last seven national championships — in the last three consecutive years, coming over these Bears in the title game.

BYU has exploited a loosely enforced rule in collegiate rugby, which gives players roughly seven years of eligibility post-high school graduation. They have fielded a team composed largely of players who graduated high school in 2009 and 2010, giving them both a big physical advantage and an increased field maturity over the Bears.

How pathetic. Nice though to see most of the article comments are from BYU fans!!

byufan4ever wrote:
http://www.dailycal.org/2016/05/04/cal-rugby-to-battle-byu-for-national-championship/



BYU to face Cal in the men's rugby championship. A Cal writer is complaining that BYU's success over Cal has been due mainly to older players.

The Bears’ arch rival, BYU, has ridden a wealth of older players to five of the last seven national championships — in the last three consecutive years, coming over these Bears in the title game.

BYU has exploited a loosely enforced rule in collegiate rugby, which gives players roughly seven years of eligibility post-high school graduation. They have fielded a team composed largely of players who graduated high school in 2009 and 2010, giving them both a big physical advantage and an increased field maturity over the Bears.

How pathetic. Nice though to see most of the article comments are from BYU fans!!

And they could take advantage of that same time if they chose to (Peace Corps, Military service, or even returned LDS missionaries). But they don't. They don't really consider it an advantage. They just want to whine about it.

Usually when opponents start complaining about this before the game has been played it's because they know they're about to get whupped and they're making early excuses to their fans. Rarely have I seen this happen and BYU not win.

It's pathetic, that's what it is. I've never seen any other teams make excuses about another team's advantage, though there are schools that get better players because they have nicer weather, better history, nicer facilities, bigger budgets, nicer student housing for athletes, more desirable academic degrees, etc. etc. etc. Shut up and play the game.

Anyone else going to the game tomorrow? I'm planning on it.

And like the last time I went to a BYU v Cal national championship game, BYU couldn't get the ball inbounds and kept committing silly, unforced turnovers and choked away a championship.

It looked to me like BYU expected to show up and win, no problem. Looked really unprepared.

I actually thought BYU made some great adjustments at the half. They looked really solid the first 10 minutes and pretty in control for the next 10 minutes of the second half. But then it seemed like Cal held off on their halftime adjustments for 21 minutes and then just rolled the Cougars.

SpiffCoug wrote:
I actually thought BYU made some great adjustments at the half. They looked really solid the first 10 minutes and pretty in control for the next 10 minutes of the second half. But then it seemed like Cal held off on their halftime adjustments for 21 minutes and then just rolled the Cougars.

:lol:



No it was BYU thinking they had it won when they were up 29-12 and then stopped playing. Credit Cal for playing it out.

I don't think BYU was ever up 29-12. They were up 29-19, but I don't think we were ever up by that much.



But your point still stands. BYU thought the game was over and let up.