The University of British Columbia Athletics

Vancouver, BC - The California Golden Bears return to British Columbia this weekend looking to retain the coveted "World Cup". The Bears are in search of their eighth straight 'Cup'. Kickoff is set for 1pm Sunday March 23 at Thunderbird Stadium.
 
This year though, there's a different feel to proceedings. There has been something stirring in and around Wolfson fields for the last 18 months. A brand new pavilion, two new coaches and a raft of young talented players involved in the national set-up have those in the know feeling rather excited about this Sunday's meeting between North America's best.
 
The Thunderbirds have blown out of the blocks this year and swept all before them in the opening half of the season. UBC's record this year stands at 14-1, and among those victories includes the scalps of Seattle and the University of Victoria. This season, for the first time in 17 years, the 'Birds reclaimed the Wightman Boot: a two-game home and away series versus Victoria that features the same format as the 'World Cup'.
 
They've experienced plenty of success in the 7s format of the game as well. This year they travelled to Las Vegas and claimed the gold medal in the Men's College 7s defeating Victoria in the final. They met Victoria again in the final of the National University 7s six weeks later this time just falling short, losing 24-19 to take the silver.
 
UBC remain a perfect 12-0 in the Okanagan Spring Division 1 and have an average winning margin of 45 points over opponents in the Lower Mainland. Their only loss this year has come to the aforementioned Golden Bears down in Berkeley.
 
A grueling 33-24 loss that day was a bitter pill to swallow. Especially as 12 of those Cal points came from intercept tries in the opening and closing stages of the match. Jared Braun, the beneficiary of those two scores, will be sidelined for this weekend's game and the Bears will also be without captain Seamus Kelly who is away on national duty with Team USA. Jake Anderson, the Cal kicker and scorer of 10 points in February's win has been the scourge of UBC for the past four years. He injured himself in their last meeting but hopes to return in time for Sunday's game.
 
The Thunderbirds will be without a few players of their own; they are missing Irish flyhalf James Thompson (ACL), Quinton Willms (shoulder) and the trio of Jorden Sandover-Best, Connor Hamilton and Harjun Gill who are all with the Canada U20 team.
 
It still remains one of the biggest and best lineups that UBC has featured this year, size always being a factor against the Golden Bears.
 
It was eight years ago that UBC last hoisted the "World Cup' and Cal have certainly held dominance in recent times. The Thunderbirds, however, do have a much better record at home. In the last 10 meetings in Vancouver both teams have each won five times, and UBC usually enter the second leg with a deficit of much larger than the nine points they sit at currently.

For the likes of Alex Kam, Francois du Toit, Adam Gosselin and Sean Ferguson it will be their fifth, and in some cases, sixth 'World Cup' series. Good things come to those that wait or so the saying goes and these boys have had to wait long enough. 2014 is their final chance but it is almost certainly their best chance to finally overcome those pesky Golden Bears.