UCLA opened up their 2021-2022 season with an interesting twist, but came out of their first weekend with some wins under their belt.

The University of Colorado made a West Coast tour over the weekend, busing to Grand Canyon University on Friday for a 26-20 win, and then on to LA for Sunday's clash with tbe Bruins. For their part, UCLA played a warmup 7s round-robin with Cal State Long Beach, University of Southern California, and UC Santa Barbara. They won all three of those matches.

But it wasn't all smooth sailing for UCLA as they were entering the season with a surprise coaching change. Dave Clancy, who had taken on the head coaching job in the summer of 2020, announced he is taking a job with the LA Giltinis professional team.

Clancy stepping down at @UCLA_RUGBY to take this position. https://t.co/Xfh92YC5nX

— Alex Goff (@goffrugbyreport) October 4, 2021

But, as outline in the pages of GRR, the Bruins have an impressive staff over and above Clancy, and former Scotland international and current Giltinis player Adam Ashe is still there. He has stepped in as interim Head Coach.

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Ashes was pleased with the effort over the weekend.

"UCLA has traditionally been pretty strong at 7s and the boys played pretty well," said Ashe, who represented Scotland in 7s. "We had a lot of our freshmen playing and they did well."

Several of those freshmen also suited up in the 15s game on Sunday, which ended as a 46-19 victory for UCLA over an admittedly travel-weary Colorado team. 

"We expected it to be a tough game and it was," said Ashe. "The guys stuck to the pattern. We're trying to install a pattern that's comparable to how we play at the Giltinis and the guys have taken to it. We scored some really nice tries. This was the first time they'd played in a long time so they were keen to get after it."

Ashe said his team's kick-chase needs work. They booted out of trouble several times only to see Colorado hurt them on counter-attacks.

"We've be working on that for sure," he said.

Lucas LaCamp was impressive throughout the weekend, scoring several tries on both Saturday and Sunday. Flyhalf Shane Barry was very much in control of the attack and, as a senior, is showing the leadership needed, as well.

Big lock Aidan Metzner was impressive also. Expected to be useful in tight, Metzner got some time in the 7s games and showed he can cover the field nicely, as well.

He ran the lineout smartly against Colorado, and was named player of the game.

Next up for UCLA is a warmup clash with Cal Poly and new Head Coach Chris O'Brien.