One week after finishing ninth in the inaugural Pac-10 tournament with an exhibition record of 1-3-1, the No. 18 Arizona club rugby team heads back to Southern California, this time to face San Diego in the team's SoCal Conference opener.
The Ruggers (3-1, 0-0 Pacific 10 Conference) come off a rough weekend in Los Angeles, but thanks to an agreement between all the Pacific 10 Conference schools, the conference matches were only exhibition games.
Arizona opens its 2006 conference schedule in a doubleheader at University of California-San Diego (0-1, 0-1) on Sunday with high hopes for the remainder of the season.
"We learned a lot at the Pac-10 tournament," Arizona head coach Dave Sitton said. "If we implement the changes we introduced at practice this week, particularly on defense, we should be in pretty good shape."
Both the Wildcats' varsity and junior varsity teams will play the Tritons this weekend in a matchup that has been a favorable one over the last five years for the varsity squad.
Arizona has opened conference play against UCSD each of the last five years and has won all five games, including a 44-20 victory last season at Estevan Park in Tucson. The Wildcats own an all-time record of 13-2 against UCSD.
Last week the Tritons opened their season with a 53-15 drubbing at University of California-Santa Barbara.
Arizona will be without senior prop Dan Glad (knee) but is welcoming the return of senior center Joey Ordonez, who missed the Los Angeles trip to nurse a separated shoulder sustained in the Wildcats' win at ASU in November.
In the first round of the tournament last week, Arizona could not hold on to a 10-7 halftime lead against host UCLA. Arizona held the Bruins on the goal line until the last second of the game, but UCLA halfback Jose Fuentes dove for a try with no time remaining, sealing a 19-15 UCLA win.
In the second round, Arizona had another promising start against Oregon, but with no time remaining, the Ducks intercepted a pass and ran back for a try under the post in a controversial play in which the Ducks' loose forward seemed to be well offside, but the non-call ultimately forced a 15-15 tie.
In the third game, Arizona was handled pretty easily by the eventual pool-winner Washington State, losing 22-0, but again, in the final matchup, the Wildcats blew their lead in the final seconds to Stanford. To conclude the final game of the day, Stanford running backs cut through two missed tackles with no time left on the clock to seal a 19-17 win by the Cardinal.
"Thank goodness we played those series of matches," Sitton said. "With conference play beginning this week, the exhibition provided us with a real glimpse of where we have strengths and where we have weaknesses."
Information taken from a press release from Arizona Wildcat Rugby News