Ruggers Open Title Defense With Impressive 40-0 Win

Harvard's defending national champion men's rugby team easily rolled over Maine, 40-0, in both squad's season opener Saturday.

The Crimson's roll up Interstate 95 was not nearly as easy, or as successful.

The team, which provides its own transportation because it is a club and not a varsity sport, left Cambridge at 5 a.m. Saturday morning in six cars.

That plan would have put 60 Harvard ruggers in Orono, Maine, by approximately 11 a.m.

But Captain John Kennedy, Joe Kenary and Rob Leavitt-three of the Crimson's eight starting forwards--along with 19 others, were marooned at roadside when two cars broke down.

And those 22 players never made it in time to play.

Despite the trips high toll, which Harvard Coach Martya Kingston described as particularly painful because an injury had already kept All-American forward Bobby Hackett from suiting up, the Crimson had tittle trouble with the host Black Bears.

George Askew put the Crimson up by four when he scored a try just 15 minutes into the first half. Senior Mark Bamford converted the try for the first two of his twenty-four points.

Harvard ended the first half up, 15-0, with nine points coming on penalty kicks.

The Crimson came out fighting in the second half and scored twice in just 12 minutes.

Senior Gus Grant recorded two tries for the Crimson in the second half. Grant had not been slated to play, but was needed to fill out the team's trip-decimated roster, Kingston said.

How Nice

After the blowout the Crimson stayed in Maine and helped drill the squad it had just beaten.

Kingston described the Black Bears as "a bit unsophisticated, but what they lack in sophistication, they make up in effort." Maine, with whom Harvard has a good relationship, Kingston said, recently lost their coach.

Saturday's win in the season opener puts Harvard on its way to the Northeast Championship Final. To qualify for that, however, the squad must win its first six league games.

Harvard takes on Holy Cross at home next Saturday in what Kingston calls his team's "first real test."