Reserve Hadley helps team salvage California road trip

Pat Hadley didn't exactly expect to play in the Men's Rugby A team's match with UC Santa Barbara.

In fact, Hadley, a junior flanker, had just played in the B team's match, but 20 minutes later he was called up to fill in for an injured teammate.

"It's the most I've ever played," Hadley said. "I was just doing my best, it was all the teammates that stepped up."

A head injury to senior flanker Ben Brown, which required six stitches and a trip to the hospital, forced Hadley into action in perhaps the most important match of the year to date.

On top off that, three minutes into the second half, Ben Rubke was sent off for misconduct, a call that Hadley thought was questionable. After the penalty the Gauchos scored a 3-point goal to go ahead 12-7.

Down 12-7 early in the match at an improving UC Santa Barbara and then having to play the last 37 minutes a man down, the Wildcats' season was possibly hanging in the balance.

So the team turned to Hadley, who had played "a great deal" just before the varsity match, to fill in for Brown at flanker and at halfback, with the team down a man because of a penalty, head coach Dave Sitton said.

Hadley had not played much halfback at all, he said.

The Wildcats (4-3, 1-1) rallied to top UC Santa Barbara, 19-12, on Sunday, after opening SoCal Rugby Conference play Friday falling to defending champion, Cal Poly, 41-3.

"Quite frankly, our success in the season hung in the balance," Sitton said.

Senior Flanker Paul Rouff scored two tries and was set up well by his teammates, Sitton said.

Senior wing Pat Williams connected with Rouff for the second try.

"Happily, we are now in the position to command our own destiny," Sitton said.

Hadley didn't really think about playing twice in a row as he headed out to fill in for the A team for the first time.

"It didn't really sink in then," Hadley said. "Today (Monday) I was not really able to walk though."

The stakes for the UCSB match were high because the Wildcats had lost their first match up in the conference to Cal Poly to start the weekend. Last year the Wildcats finished second in the conference to the Mustangs.

Against Cal Poly, Arizona took a 3-0 lead off of sophomore Center Josh May's field goal and spent a lot of time in the Mustangs' red zone but ended up trailing 17-3 at the half after not being able to capitalize, and then were outscored in the second half by 24.

"They (Cal Poly) are a very strong rugby program," Sitton said. "They wore us down in the second half."

Sitton is proud of the turnaround from the Cal Poly match to UCSB.

"We did quite a lot of improving from Friday to Sunday, but there virtually is not a single area where we don't need to improve," Sitton said.

Though Arizona dropped 55 points on the Gauchos last year, Sitton feels UC Santa Barbara is a "much improved team,sophomore-driven team."

"I think the weekend went really well actually," Hadley said. "The team showed a lot of heart."

The Wildcats now have a bye week and then return to action against New Mexico in a non-conference home match on their Parents' Day at Estevan Park.