Time for the rubber match.

For the third year in a row, St. Bonaventure will square off with Brown University in the final four of the National Collegiate Rugby Championship. The Bonnies (7-3), ranked No. 3 in the latest NCR Division I poll, meet the No. 2 Bears (10-0) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Penn State-Berks.

The game will be livestreamed on The Rugby Network.

In 2022, Brown edged SBU, 14-9, en route to winning the national title over Wheeling the next weekend in Houston. In 2023, the Bonnies defeated Brown, 15-13, on Noah Edwards’ penalty kick on the final play of the match.

Brown steamrolled through the Liberty Conference, outscoring its opponents, 535-72. But the results of the two common opponents the Bonnies and Bears played were awfully similar.

SBU defeated Dartmouth, 41-17, in an NCR playoff game and Walsh University, 11-10. Brown edged Walsh, 23-15, in an NCR quarterfinal and beat Liberty rival Dartmouth, 40-14.

Bonnies Coach Danny Neighbour knows his club will need to be at its best to advance to the national title game for the third time in four years. SBU won the 2021 title over Penn State and lost the title game in 2023 to Notre Dame College.

“I feel like we still haven’t shown what we’re fully capable of offensively for a full 80 minutes. We’ve shown it for 20 or 30 minutes and really piled on some points, but we need to be more consistent going forward,” Neighbour said.

“If we can keep the penalty count down, stay patient and keep possession of the ball, we’ll be in good shape. But we’ll be in for a tough day if we keep turning it over or give them penalties to put us on our back foot.”

The Thanksgiving break allowed the Bonnies to lick their many wounds. At one point during the season, six starters were out with injuries, but they are as healthy as they’ve been all year heading into Saturday’s match, Neighbour said.

“The injury bug started right after preseason began, so this break couldn’t have come at a better time,” he said. “The lads looked as fresh as they have in weeks at practice last night. Picking the 23 (players) for the match will be the hardest thing to do because we have such good depth, but that’s a good problem to have.”

St. Bonaventure held off Thomas More University, 30-24, on Nov. 23 to advance to the NCR Championship semifinals for the fourth straight year. Neighbour doesn’t take that success for granted.

“It’s great to go this deep into the postseason and do it year in and year out, being in the conversation of the top four NCR teams in the country,” he said. “It’s always nice to look back on our seasons and realize that we’re putting ourselves in this position every year and to know we’re doing things the right way.”

Top-ranked Queens University will face No. 4 Wheeling at 5 p.m. Saturday in the other semifinal. The semifinal winners move on to the national title game Dec. 14 in Houston.

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About the University: The nation’s first Franciscan university, St. Bonaventure University is a community committed to transforming the lives of our students inside and outside the classroom, inspiring in them a lifelong commitment to service and citizenship. Out of 167 regional universities in the North, St. Bonaventure was ranked #6 for value and #14 for innovation by U.S. News and World Report (2024).