It is no surprise that the California Golden Bears Rugby squad is back in the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship 7s knockout round on Sunday. In the 8 year history of the CRC (dating back to 2010 when the first year took place in Columbus, OH before moving to the Philadelphia suburb), Golden Bears have never lost a Saturday pool play match (that’s 24-0).
Of course, the competition level is greatly increased on Sundays since college rugby is still dominated by only a few teams, with the most storied side being the Cal Bears. Although the 2017 Bears’ inexperience was at time evident on Saturday, particularly early in the first two matches against Clemson and then Penn State, Cal earned the top seed for Sunday based on the best point differential of +84.