St. Mary’s got a bit of a wakeup call this weekend as the Gaels went down 44-3 to the San Francisco Golden Gate men’s club.

This result came after a string of pre-season victories over collegiate opponents. St. Mary’s Head Coach Tim O’Brien said the performance was frustrating - not so much because his team lost, but rather the manner in which they lost.

Photos by Michael Geib. SFGG in green, St. Mary's in red and blue.

“I don’t want to say we were overwhelmed, but I though we would be a lot more ferocious,” O’Brien told Goff Rugby Report. “We gave up a lot of turnovers. One try was from a pick [interception] and four came directly from turnovers, with two more from penalties. We didn’t have a lot of answers for their drive in the maul, but the big issue was 19 turnovers, and we paid the price.”

O’Brien was impressed with SFGG, which featured former St. Mary’s All American Volney Rouse at flyhalf.

“If somebody can tell me there’s a better game manager out there than Volney, I’d like to see him,” said O’Brien. “And Bruce Thomas is the best #7 I have seen.”

But as good as SFGG was, St. Mary’s was not good. O’Brien said his squad, which graduated some key players last spring, did not hold together the way he wanted it to. The biggest positive? The scrums.

“Our scrums looked great,” he said.

Next up for St. Mary’s is a two-game tour of Arizona with the University of Arizona on Friday and Arizona State on Sunday.

“It will be really interesting to see how we do against two very good teams that have a lot of talent,” said O’Brien.