The Wildcat rugby team travels to San Diego this weekend for a pair of SoCal Conference games that are vital to their playoff hopes.

ERIC M. JUKELEVICS/Arizona Daily Wildcat A UA rugger stiffarms a Utah opponent last month at Estevan Park. The Wildcats head to San Diego for a pair of crucial SoCal conference matches starting today.

The UA ruggers face off against rival San Diego State today and the University of San Diego on Sunday.

Head coach Dave Sitton said the team realizes the games are must-wins.

"If we have any desire of going to the playoffs we have to win both of these games," Sitton said.

Because of the format in rugby, the top two teams in the conference get a bid to the playoffs and in previous years only teams with zero or one loss have gone. With one conference loss already, Sitton said he feels that is imperative for the Wildcats to win out the remainder of their conference games.

Arizona is coming off a weekend in which they split conference matches. They beat the University of California Santa Barbara 55-9 and lost to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo 15-11 in a controversial match. The Mustangs were awarded a penalty try in the closing minutes to take the lead and held on to the win.

If the Wildcats (3-5, 1-1) are looking to do better than a split this weekend they will have to defeat conference leader San Diego State (8-1, 2-0) today. The Aztecs lone loss of the season was to the Wildcats in Tucson on Nov. 26, as part of the Domino Invitational.

The Aztec loss was just one of many in the long history of the SDSU-UA rivalry.

Arizona has played the Aztecs more than any other school and leads the all-time series 22-20-1.

"We've had some big games against SDSU," Sitton said. "Every time we play each other (the score) is within a try.

"Sometimes in the past (the rivalry) got out of hand, but now it is a strong and healthy rivalry," he said.

Currently, the Wildcats own a four-game winning streak over the Aztecs, but SDSU will be looking to end that with two new additions to the team.

On Sunday, UA will face off against USD, a team the Wildcats have had their way with in the past, including a 96-0 drubbing last season.