Eight Ruggers Finds Spots With All-Stars

Eight members of the Harvard rugby club have been selected to the New England College All-Star select-side.

The trials were held Sunday at Soldiers Field, and all eight Crimson ruggers who tried out made the cut from 75 to 39 players, the New England Rugby Football Union announced two days ago.

Fly-half Chris Liles, center Scott Tierney, wing Scott Helinski, fullback Bruce Miller, eight-man Mark Sagarin, lock James Keller, prop Jon Greenberg and flanker Mike Newhouse all have made the squad and will tour the East Coast playing against men's rugby squads. In the spring, the select-side will play a team from Scotland.

"The remarkable thing is that they played so much better technically than their opponents, and that's a credit to our program," said Martyn Kingston, who is the volunteer coach of the Harvard rugby club and the coach of the New England select-side.

Each select-side member will have a chance at making the All-East and All-America teams. Kingston is also the coach of the All-East team and is an assistant for the national team.

Greenberg, who is a junior, and Tierney each made the the N.E. College All-Star team last year. Injured scrum-half Mike Gibbs, another select-side veteran, is on injured reserve.

"[Greenberg], is making a career out of it, and [Tierney] has a chance to go a long way toward qualifying for more honors," said Kingston. "[Gibbs], who has ligament damage in one of his fingers, has a very good shot at making it when his injury heals."