Santa Clara visits Arizona Saturday in a key warmup for the two teams, as Santa Clara targets a DIA playoff spot and Arizona looks to move up in the PAC Conference.

For Arizona, this will be a chance for Head Coach Sean Duffy’s still very young team to make a statement. Duffy has a deep roster, but many of those players were recruited in the last couple of years. 

“It’s a non-league game but that doesn’t diminish the importance of it; the game is super-important for us,” said Duffy. 

the Wildcats will be missing a couple of players due to injury and also due to the upcoming USA U20 camp. But, as wel said, they are deep.

“We had a good fall; we won the West Coast 7s,” said Duffy. “We got our first-year guys into the system, and the guys have been working hard. Now what we need to do is establish come continuity.”

Kyle Rogers captains the team and will play mostly at flyhalf. He is experience, and he’s not a senior yet so Duffy can rely on his leadership for some time to come. The same is true of Sean Coleman. The lock and vice captain has emerged as a crucial cog in the tight five.

Santa Clara, for their part, will approach the game in an interesting way. Head Coach Paul Keeler said his team is not big - his front row might average 210 pounds per man - and so they will have to be smart, strong, and mobile.

“We’ve been pushing fitness a lot,” said Keeler, who wants his team to run opponents ragged. “We look pretty good. We’re athletic. We don’t have a lot of depth, and we’re just trying to follow up on the 7s successes we’ve had and carry them over. We’re going to have to play a wide open game.”

The Broncos have done well in 7s, but will need to build the team’s tight five prowess. They are trying to build the program off the field, too, with an endowment and improved relations with the school. On the field, Keeler can call on senior Jack O’Hara, who can be a No. 8 or a wing, and senior backs Asad Braswell and Ryan Chavkin. Juniors Mitch Spinelli (front row), and Ticker Smith (scrumhalf) are at key positions, but Santa Clara also has some exciting freshmen, such as center Adam Leonard and flanker Nick Chan.

Both Arizona and Santa Clara have tough conference schedules ahead of them. The Wildcats will be in a dogfight in the PAC, where most likely everyone is playing for 2nd behind Cal. Arizona will play Stanford on Friday to open conference play, and Cal the next day. That’s going to be a tough start to the league schedule, and it will remain difficult with USC, UCLA, and Arizona State in quick succession. They finish against Utah on March 25 in a game that likely decides who finishes 2nd among a varied group.

Santa Clara is in the California Conference, where most likely everyone is playing for 2nd behind Saint Mary’s. The Broncos in fact open their league season against the Gaels on January 28. That may not be so key a game as later clashes against Cal Poly and San Diego State - games Keeler said have been close in the past and are winnable. 

It’s not going to be easy for either team, and it all starts this weekend in Tucson.