Unbeaten Ruggers Stomp on Dartmouth

The undefeated Harvard rugby team captured its third win of the season Saturday, thrashing Dartmouth's behemoths by a score of 43-0.

Playing before its largest crowd in two years, the Crimson looked sluggish in the first half. The number-one ranked team in the East had trouble getting the ball out of its half of the field, while the referees struggled to keep the rowdy crowd off the field.

Future Shock The Crimson came to life after stopping a Dartmouth attempt inches from the line, rallying to score a penalty kick just before the half ended. Holding a 12-0 lead, the ruggers gathered around the keg to discuss their strategy for the second half.

The meeting seemed to help, as the Crimson came out in the second stanza and quickly wore down the Big Green pack. The sea of green-shirted fans began burying their faces in their drinks, while the ruggers scored almost at will, turning a hard-fought, see-saw battle into a rout.

"We are very fit team, so once we get rolling, the other team usually weakens," captain A1 "Doc" Halliday declared after the game. "When our backs start getting the ball often, we're hard to bear."

Those backs--whom Rugby World magazine called the best in the nation last year--seemed to be all over the field in the second half, out-racing the Dartmouth players to the ball, setting up six tries.

Heroes

Yet it was the scrum which turned the tide of the game. They did the dirty work in the trenches, fighting to get the ball back to the swift backs.

"We really took it to 'em in that second half, and totally dominated their scrum," wing forward Gary Marx said after the game.

"They came out with the same big and strong pack as last year, but were able to outrun them until they gave up," Greg "Animal" Carey, who scored two tries in the contest, said.

Macho

It was a rough and intensely played game, with two Crimson forwards, Charlie Bott and Roy Roberts, sustaining broken noses. "But broken noses do not count as serious injuries." Carey asserted. "We usually get one or two a game."

Unlike the first two games of the season, when Bott scored all but four of the team's 36 points, the entire squad contributed to the Crimson scoring attack. Bott managed to get only one try, but added three penalty kicks and five conversions for a total of 23 points.

"In a closer game, we rely on Charlie's runs, but today it was more of a team effort," Halliday said.

"The score could have been higher," the team's volunteer coach, Kevin O'Brien, commented. "We made some mistakes and didn't execute perfectly, especially in the line-outs."

The B and C squads did not fare so well on Saturday. The B side lost a hard-fought game, 13-6.