Twenty-five Lindenwood University rugby players are in California to get some tough competition before their conference season starts.

The Lions have been on the business end of a harsh lesson from St. Mary’s in previous years, so this time Head Coach JD Stephenson is looking to give the lesson at the beginning, rather than the end, of the season.

“For us it’s definitely a measuring stick,” Stephenson told Goff Rugby Report. “St. Mary’s been the benchmark for the standard in DIA for years. So how we do against them is an indication of where we’re at. Playing the best competition early in the season will help us in identifying areas where we can improve instead of waiting until conference play to fix some things.”

Simple enough. Lindenwood faces St. Mary’s on Saturday and Santa Clara on Sunday. It’s likely Stephenson will change his lineup for the second game, but he can’t change too much as he’s only travel with 25.

It’s a good 25, though.

“Culturally we’re a lot better from that team that came here last time,” Stephenson said, referring to the spring of 2014 when St. Mary’s crushed the Lions in the DIA semis. “We’ve got the right guys with the right mind-set that understand what we’re trying to do and have bought into it.”

So it’s all a bit of a test, but one where losing won’t be the end, but a beginning. All players will get a run, and then they have a month to fine-tune.

“Last year our first 15s game was a conference game against Life,” said Stephenson. “We needed more before then, so this weekend’s going to be great for us.”