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While it is early days, Olympic Club in Northern California and Las Vegas in Southern California registered big scores to set the pace in their respective territories.
National Division One quarterfinalists Olympic Club started their 2009 campaign with a solid 35-10 win over San Mateo at the newly refurbished Crocker-Amazon Recreation Ground. Fullback Peter Galicz slotted three penalties and three conversions in the bonus point win.
San Mateo scored the first try in the game after eleven minutes to take the lead, and kept the scores close at the half, trailing by just a point 6-5.
Four second half tries by Olympic sealed the victory, although O-club Head Coach Ray Lehner was none to happy with the performance.
"We were very average in every single aspect of play; in the second half we were lucky to get a couple trys in broken play that made San Mateo lose interest," said Lehner. "The two bright spots were the positional play of our wings and the individual effort by Ante Drazina at Openside Flanker."
Looking ahead, Olympic travels to Reno, to play against the newly promoted Reno Zephyrs. The Zephyrs know this will be a tough introduction to Division One play but Coach Lehner is wary, "I saw the Div 3 final last year; Reno is a big and physical outfit. We will need to play better."
Reno had the bye this weekend to further their preparations.
Hayward got their season off on a winning note, defeating the Sacramento Lions 17-12. Hayward manager Manu Finau was happy with the hard fought win, considering that only four members of last years team played.
“There were a lot of mistakes, but it was good seeing so many players from our high-school program coming through,” Finau told ARN.
The other match in Northern California saw Rugby Super League club San Francisco Golden Gate play the Sacramento Capitals at Treasure Island. The Capitals, for many years a fixture in the Division One competition, return to the top flight after a spell in Division Two. Scores were unavailable at press time for this fixture.
In Southern California, the pre-season Ganey Cup got underway with the early form of Las Vegas already raising eyebrows. Following last week's big win over Tempe, the Blackjacks backed up against the Santa Barbara Grunions with a big 45-0 victory. New Head Coach Jason Kelly had the Las Vegas outfit primed and a dominant first half performance paved the way for the victory.
The intensity dropped off in the second half and the travelling Grunions were able to gain a little composure. Las Vegas may have been guilty of looking ahead to next week’s fixture against Rugby Super League powerhouse Belmont Shore.
In an all Super League matchup, OMBAC travelled north to Long Beach and registered an impressive 44-18 win over their long-standing rivals. OMBAC have begun 2009 were they left off in 2008, where they dominated the pre-season tournaments in Southern California.
Both coaches were keen to look at the new talent on display, but it was the defensive lapses for Belmont Shore, particularly in the backline, which would be of concern to returning Head Coach Matt Webber, with the task of controlling a rampant Las Vegas looming next week.
(Cortney Crego photo)
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In a traditionally passionate contest, Los Angeles defeated Rugby Super League club, the Santa Monica Dolphins 29-28 on the last play of the game.
Los Angeles raced out to the early lead but Santa Monica, playing a very up-tempo style of rugby, fought back to take the lead in the second half.
Los Angeles worked frantically to put themselves in drop goal range to at least come away with a losing bonus point. But the kick wasn’t necessary as former Tongan and Curry Cup prop and Man of the Match Kana Fakava scored the match-winning try in the corner to seal the win.
Los Angeles Head Coach Marty Jones was ecstatic with the win. “What was really good was how some of our players really stood up, when asked to play out of position," Jones told ARN.
"We went with two open-side flankers to try a negate Santa Monica’s game and John Yuhas played really well. It was a great start for us.”
And finally, the Huntington Beach Unicorns had the bye weekend and played a full inter-squad match. Head Coach Rich Whellans noted “It was a very productive day, and having the depth to do so was important as we start play next week”.
Northern California
Olympic Club 35 - San Mateo 10
Hayward 17 - Sacramento Lions 12
SF Golden Gate - Sacramento Capitals (score unavailable)
Reno – Bye
Southern California
OMBAC 44 - Belmont Shore 18
Las Vegas 45 - Santa Barbara 0
Los Angeles 29 - Santa Monica 28
Huntington Beach - Bye
