The Northwest Collegiate Rugby Conference gets going this weekend with six teams in action.

Newcomers to the DI conference, Gonzaga, will want to build on their solid 7s efforts on the road at Eastern Washington. Student-coached Zags finished 2nd in the NCRC 7s championship, and showcased some good teamwork and skills. They will need some power up front to augment that. Read more about their 7s effort here.

EWU, for their part, finished 2015 0-7, and are clearly hoping to get a stronger start this year. Both EWU and GU come into the weekend 0-1, having lost to Washington in November.

With Central Washington out of the league (mostly because CWU dominated and it wasn't really competitive for anyone else), it's a toss-up as to who will take 1st this season. Many think Western Washington, which boasts some very talented young players, will be the one, but WWU was just one of three teams that finished 5-2 last year - Washington and Oregon being the other two.

UW beat EWU 42-0 last fall and Gonzaga 65-15 to start the season early at 2-0. Washington Coach/Program Director Mike Alfstad said the games were more competitive than the scores indicationed.

"The rather lopsided scores don’t do justice to the solid competition our lads faced," said Alfstad, who took over the coaching reins when Kevin Swiryn orchestrated his comeback to the USA 7s team. The coaching staff might have undergone some changes, but the lineup hasn't so much - Washington graduated only three seniors from last year, so should be improved this year.

"We continue to mature," said Alfstad. "We are still a very young team, as we were last season."

Four-year starter Josh Rayburn captains the Huskies and he partners nicely with Jack Stimoson as the experienced leaders for the UW team. Stimson spent a year abroad but is back in the flyhalf jersey for his senior season. Both players are also excellent students - smart and respected.

UW meets Oregon, clearly one of the Huskies' major rivals for the conference title.

"The Oregon match this weekend here has our full attention," said Alfstad. "They are always on the top of their game, very physical and athletic. We will have to play at a level that matches that or better to come away with another league win."

Oregon's Jess Kraus said the Ducks have an impressive list of returning players, including the highly-regarded Connor Crossley, Lucas Silveira, Gabe Chavez, and Alex Quirici. Kraus, who missed last season with a torn ACL, will also be back.

Taylor Krumrei and Travis Cutler will be missed in the forwards, but, added Kraus, "we have increased our recruiting efforts and have come up on some young talent who have been stepping up and filling in the shoes of our alumni. We are very excited to get up to UW this weekend and kick off the season with hopefully a win and show the NCRC what we are made of. If we stay injury-free I feel that we will have a successful season."

Also on the slate is Washington State at Western Oregon. These are two teams with questions surrounding them. WOU was 1-6 in 2014-15, but were very competitive at times, pushing both Oregon and Boise State. WSU, meanwhile, has to be thinking that a little improvement here and there could bring big dividends. Their development league team was 4-1 in 2014-15, and at 3-4 the first-timers weren't out of it last season. The Cougars will want to win this one, of course, but could well be looking at their first three games - WOU, Gonzaga, and Boise State - and conclude they can start 3-0 before entering a tough final stretch of WWU, EWU, Oregon, and Washington.

This weekend's matchups: