Questions aplenty remain in the Gold Coast Men’s DIAA conference after the first couple of weeks, and one of those might be answered this weekend.

After a solid beginning, San Diego didn’t play last week, but will host Southern California this weekend. USC has struggled to put out a truly competitive rugby team for some time, but now the Trojans are looking to be a team to be reckoned with. 

They lost last week, but only 24-17 to the defending conference champion Long Beach State. And, said Coach Dominic Riebli, it could have been even closer.

“We had our best shot to even things up when a Long Beach penalty led to a lineout inside the attacking 22. The pack successfully mauled the ball to the 5-meter mark and received penalty advantage. But, after the maul collapsed, the ball went wide and, ultimately, astray.”

USC tapped quickly from that penalty rather than taking the lineout and setting up another maul. The ball was spun wide, dropped, and Long Beach State went the distance for a try that made it 24-10.

“Our shortcomings and failings are correctable and will come with time, teaching, and experience,” said Riebli, who knows that a painful loss can sometimes be the best teacher of all. “The players continue to grow and are starting to define their roles within the team.”

USD Coach Andrew Castle likes what he has, but he also is cautious. 

“We take each week as it comes, work as hard as we can and hopefully that will be enough to get us to the conference playoffs. I believe that we have the team to make to those playoffs but we are a long way off of that right now.”

Cal State Fullerton gets on the field for the first time this season, playing the CSULB 49ers, who are 1-0. And in the third game this weekend, first-place Grand Canyon is as UC Irvine.

GCU is actually 1-1 and sits in first because the ‘Lopes have played two games and earned maximum bonus points from those games. 

Current Standings

This weekend's games: