Saint Mary's opened the New Year for pretty much everyone in US college rugby with a 45-10 defeat of Trinity Western.
The British Columbia-based Spartans made the most of their trip to California, even holding their jersey presentation at Alcatraz.
Trinity Western got a try from captain Caleb Gerth. Director of Rugby Andrew Evans said the trip was a good lesson against a very strong Gaels side.
"There's a good sense of disappointment in this group, but at the same time we dealt with more adversity and certain guys stepped up," said Evans, who sees two players leaving after this game to join Rugby Canada's Pacific Pride development program. "Our set piece was a little shaky and we weren't accurate in our passing, but we've had a lot of curve balls thrown at us over the last few games, so these games have given us an opportunity to mature and deal with those challenges."
A canceled flight kept one prop at home and another front-rower went down injured within a few minutes, but the Spartans battled on in difficult situations in the scrum.
