After more than a month without playing a game, the Wildcat rugby team showed what a long break can do to a team. On Saturday, the Wildcats dropped a pair of non-conference games to Utah and Stanford.

"We deal with (the lay-off) every year," head coach Dave Sitton said.

Sitton said that every season, after the winter break, the rugby team is faced with the decision to practice for several weeks before its first conference game or to jump right into playing again. This season, it chose the latter.

In the opening match, the Wildcats fell to Utah, 15-0.

In the first half, the game was controlled by the speed and defense of Utah. Arizona had trouble mustering any offense and any time they threatened to score, the Utah defense turned them away.

In the second half, the Wildcats turned up their defense and held the Utes to only three points, but continued with their offensive struggles. The Wildcats were able to keep the score close all game, but could never manage to overtake the Utes.

In the second game of the doubleheader, the Wildcats were pummeled by the Stanford Cardinal, 41-3.

Because of a Stanford scheduling error, a game that was originally going to be played on Sunday was changed to Saturday. This forced the Wildcats to play mostly junior-varsity players against the Cardinal's varsity squad.

Stanford jumped to an early 5-0 lead, and the Wildcats responded with a field goal to pull within two, but that would be the closest they would get all match.

From there on out, it was all Stanford. The Cardinal accounted for all of the second-half scoring with 17 points.

Sitton said he did not want to put too much of the blame on the fact that it was the Arizona JV facing the Cardinal varsity.

"We have enough guys that can play," Sitton said. "We pride ourselves on having a JV team that can compete with other schools' varsity (teams)."

Sitton described both games as a mixed bag. He said he was proud of the effort that was given, but disappointed with the teams' ability to play as a unit.

"We did a lot of the little things wrong," Sitton said. "We didn't execute and we didn't play as a unit."

With both losses this weekend, the Wildcats remained positive for their upcoming matches.

"We have all the makings of a good team," Sitton said.

"We as coaches need to get better, and the players need to get better," Sitton added. "In my 25th year of coaching, both will occur."

Next weekend, the Wildcats will travel to Sacramento to play Sacramento State and Nevada. These are the final two non-conference matches of the Wildcats' schedule and will be played on Friday and Saturday, respectively.