With its first conference win under its belt, the UA men's rugby team plays the first of two non-conference matches this weekend against Stanford today in Palo Alto, Calif.
The Wildcats are coming off a 44-20 win over SoCal conference rival UC-San Diego on Sunday. The win over the Tritons was the Ruggers' first match in 60 days, so the UA is still trying to work out the kinks.
"This weekend should be a good gauge of how good of a team we really are," said assistant coach Tyson Swetnam.
The Wildcats play No. 12 St. Mary's Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
"We will need to be solid all weekend in order to come out with two victories against these schools," said senior team captain Justin Kunz.
Swetnam said the key to the St. Mary's game could be the aggressiveness of both teams, saying the Wildcats need to match the Gaels' tough-nosed style.
"We need to realize that we'll have to go hard against our opponents, so we're going to go hard against each other," said senior lock Mark Handin, who called Tuesday's practice intense and physical.
UA also addressed the fundamentals of scrums this week in practice to get familiar with the recent rule changes and spacing.
Senior fly half Mark Gallo said too many guys have been getting sucked into the scrum, slowing down the team's ability to get the ball to the backs and up the field.
The trip to northern California should be eased this weekend by the arrival of new recruits. The Wildcats were introduced to five new players before practice Tuesday.
Freshmen Martin Montes, David Hume, Matt Travers and Dan Hathner, along with junior Dan Glad, all add bodies to an already deep team that usually fields four squads among 80 members.
Swetnam said it will be imperative for the team to develop cohesion with the new players.
This will be the Wildcats' first road trip of the semester. The team plays their following match at Long Beach State Feb. 11.