A few things loom over this weekend’s Saint Mary’s-vs-Cal Poly clash.
Two brothers go against each other at Head Coach in Tim O’Brien and Chris O’Brien.
Two backlines with different styles but each with special abilities.
Two teams undefeated in conference play.
But … the one that might loom largest is that while Saint Mary’s has been rolling through their schedule so far, Cal Poly opened their season with a very humbling 101-0 loss to Cal.
Not a conference game, but meaningful. Saint Mary’s hasn’t played Cal yet but they did play Arizona, winning by over 40. Arizona lost to Cal by six … so you see the problem.
It’s fair to argue, though, that Arizona is a very different team now than they were at the beginning of this winter/spring campaign. And it’s fair to say Cal Poly is different, too.
“We know this is a tough one, whether it’s against my brother or anyone else,” said Tim O’Brien of Saint Mary’s. “Chris is an asset for the game and really, forget about that Cal result. For us we know it will be a challenge.”
And that’s something Saint Mary’s and others in the upper echelon on the West Coast are looking for. Not to be cruel, but there’s a divide between the top four teams in the California Conference and the teams ranked 7-13. It certainly makes it difficult to see where you are as a squad. Holding players to a standard is a coach’s job, but opponents are often the best teachers.
“It’s where we are in American college rugby,” said O’Brien (Tim).
For Cal Poly there’s a specific reason why maybe you put aside the magnitude of that Cal loss. Many of the Mustangs players were on a semester overseas in the fall.
