January 17, 2025
Steuber Rugby Stadium
Stanford, CA

Stanford 29 – Santa Barbara 48

Stanford Men's Rugby hosted UC Santa Barbara to kick off the new year in the Rod Sears Cup match. Annually, the Cardinal and the Gauchos meet in a preseason contest ahead of conference play to honor the dedication and contributions of Rod Sears to the sport of rugby at both universities. Sears, Stanford Class of 1961, played rugby, basketball, and football at Stanford. After graduation, he became an assistant football coach at Stanford before coaching both football and rugby at UC Santa Barbara, where he founded the rugby program. The match is played in his honor between the two programs, which reside in different conferences and do not meet during the regular season.

The match saw a near-even split of possession and territory, reflected in the first-half score, tied at 19 apiece. The difference for the Gauchos came from line breaks. Despite the efforts of Louis de Germay '27, who made multiple try-saving tackles at fullback, Santa Barbara found the try line on four of their line breaks. The Cardinal worked their way into the Gauchos' 22-meter area on several occasions by kicking for touch following double-digit penalties conceded by the Gauchos.

With a strong crowd in attendance, the Cardinal finished with 29 points in the loss to Santa Barbara. The Rod Sears Cup remains with the Gauchos.

Stanford will not face Santa Barbara during the regular conference season, as UCSB competes in CRAA D1A, a division higher than the Cardinal. Stanford will continue to build on the experience of captain Nolan Pierce '27, Leiden Brueschke '28, Anders Luffman '26, and first-year players Jacob Bethell '29 and Jaime Cano '29, both of whom bring prior rugby experience to the squad.

Join us thsi coming Saturday, January 24, 2026, for a doubleheader at Steuber Rugby Stadium. The Stanford Women will welcome UC Santa Cruz to the CRAA D1 Pacific Mountain Rugby Conference (PMRC), a division up from the Banana Slugs' former D2 season. That match will kick off at 11:00 a.m., followed by a B-side game. The Stanford Men will then host the University of Nevada, Reno to begin CRAA D1AA conference play, with kickoff set for 2:00 p.m.

Head to Steuber Rugby to catch the matches in person or watch them on the @StanfordClubSports YouTube channel. Be sure to also follow us on Instagram @stanford_rugby for schedules and game photos.

Tries: Nolan Pierce, Andrew Yang, Leiden Brueschke, Jacob Bethell
Conversions: Jacob Bethell (4)

Stanford Men's Roster vs. UCSB
Nolan Pierce • Jaime Cano • Terry Guo • Ryan Mago • Jacob Bethell • Leiden Brueschke • Louis de Germay • Arturo Kupfer • Anders Luffman • Andrew Yang • Su Reh • Dylan McAdams • Harris Layson • Ihsaan Doola • Nigel Willacy