March 23, 2005

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The University of British Columbia defeated the Cal Varsity Rugby team 20-17 on a cold afternoon at Wolfson Rugby Ground on the UBC Campus. Despite losing the match, the "World Cup" returns to Berkeley as the home and away series is based on the aggregate score of both matches. Since the Golden Bears won 15-5 back in February, the Thunderbirds needed a home turf victory by more than 10 points to earn the Cup in Vancouver.

Notably absent from the lineup that defeated the T-Birds back in February were the Stanfill brothers, Jake and Louis. 2003 All-American, Jake Stanfill, suffered a season ending knee injury when the two universities first played back in February. Younger brother Louis, was a late scratch from the team sheet due to injury and was replaced by true freshman Paul Jesseman.

The match was a typical encounter between the two great North American rugby universities, hard fought throughout, with only five points separating the teams at the intermission. Both outfits displayed fearless velocity in attack as well as defense, resulting in intense competition at the breakdown, with both teams forcing several turnovers through determination and unrelenting grit. The Bears kept to form, scored both of their tries from powerful drives at the line of touch. All-American skipper Tony Vontz scored both of the Bears' tries, which Andrew Blair converted. Blair also had a penalty kick.

"UBC well deserved the victory, and taking nothing away from their performance, we would not be happy with ours. The Cup is an important piece of hardware to the Cal faithful and Tony Vontz's boys brought it back to Berkeley," commented Cal Varsity Rugby Head Coach Jack Clark.

The World Cup, a trophy donated by the World Newspaper in Vancouver early in the 20th century, has resided in Berkeley for seven of the last nine years.

The Scoring Timeline:

20:00 UBC 5, 2

27:00 UBC 5,

31:00 Tony Vontz 5, Andrew Blair 2

Halftime Score: UBC 12, California 7

55:00 UBC 5

59:00 Andrew Blair 3 (Penalty Kick)

60:00 UBC 3 (Penalty Kick)

76:00 Tony Vontz 5, Andrew Blair 2

Final Score: UBC 20, California 17

The Team:

15. Blair, 14. Hanks, 13. Gurecki, 12. Donnelly 11. Kidd, 10. Weedon, 9. DiGiorgio, 1. McClenahan, (Kroll, 35-40), 2. Vontz©, 3. Dorosti, 4. Grinter, 5. Jesseman, (Jones, 61), 6. Welch, (Tedesco, 47-55), 7. Pretorius, 8. Lindsey.