June 4, 2008

BERKELEY - Recent alumni and members of California's 2008 national championship team have been honored with selections to the U.S. National and Select XV teams for June international assemblies, with All-America nods for July's New Zealand tour still to come.

Outgoing Cal captain Rikus Pretorius '08 has gained a new captaincy as skipper of the U.S. Select XV that faces off against England Counties for a two-game series Friday and Monday, June 6 and 9, at Columbia University's Baker Athletic Field in New York.

Golden Bears center Gary Golding '08 was to join his teammate on the Select XV until his impressive postseason promoted him to the U.S. National Team for its Barclays Churchill Cup competitions against Canada, England A, Scotland A, Ireland A and Argentina, with action kicking off against England A Saturday, June 7. Golding will join three Cal forwards on the squad: Louis Stanfill '08, Mike MacDonald '04 and Kort Schubert '02.

The All-America team traveling to New Zealand, where the collegians are scheduled to face Wellington University Old Boys, Massey University and New Zealand Universities, won't be finalized until just prior to the tour's mid-July departure.

Several Bears, including Colin Hawley, have been forced to pull out of the all-star process to attend personal matters, but some of the many Cal players still in the running for selection include hooker Joe Welch '08, tighthead prop Eric Fry, lock Paul Jesseman, scrumhalf Zak Triplett '08, flyhalf Keegan Engelbrecht and wingers Dustin Muhn and Ryan Taylor.

"We take significant pride in placing players on these U.S. teams," said Cal head coach Jack Clark, head coach of the U.S. National Team from 1993-99, general manager of the national team from 1999-2003 and the collegiate All-Americans' head coach from 1985-92. "It is an indication that our player development systems are functioning well."

Cal has produced 108 All-Americans and 42 U.S. international rugby players, Clark among them, counting both national team and Olympic assemblies. Six Bears played on the gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic rugby teams of 1920 and '24, and since the formation of the U.S. National Team in 1976, Cal ruggers have made 458 international test appearances. Twenty-five of Clark's former players have become internationals and three have gone on to earn their "Blue" at Oxford University as graduate student-athletes. All of Cal's All-Americans have been named during Clark's career as head coach.

"We have a long history of contributing our best players to America's international rugby cause. We only need to assure that representative rugby participation does not interfere with our academic responsibilities, and for that matter, doesn't dilute our player development cycles, all of which is possible," Clark said.

Players know they can realize their full potential under Clark's leadership. "He is a natural born leader," Joe Welch told The Daily Californian after Clark was named Coach of the Spring by the newspaper. "He is the one who always pushed us to want more from ourselves than we ever thought we wanted. He's a man for the ages."