A Title, But No Revenge for Ruggers

Revenge may be sweet. But winning is the most important thing.

The Harvard men's rugby football team entered last weekend's New England Tournament hoping to avenge its Eastern Regional final Four loss to Army in the fall season.

Harvard never got the chance. Brown bounced the Cadets out of Providence, R.I. Sunday Morning to give the Crimson an open road to the championship. Harvard downed the Bears, 16-3, o take the New England Championship without the revenge but with certainly more than a little satisfaction.

"We're really excited. It was great to see the team really come together by the end of the weekend," Forwards Captain Chris Geary said. "From Amherst on, we were really rolling."

Ain't that the truth. Unlike last week's abrupt 9-7 dismissal in the opening round of the Ivy Tournament against Dartmouth, Harvard did all the important things right, keeping possession in the opposing teams' ends and playing solid defense in the clutch.

As the Crimson marched over opponent after opponent, each team was left to wonder why it could only count its points on one hand. No team managed more than three points against Harvard's stingy defense all weekend.

"We spent the majority of the weekend in other team's end," Geary said. "There wasn't single try run in against us. That was definitely key."

"The team came together as a unit especially the connection between back row forwards and scrum half. That really allowed us to work on things we wanted to," the forwards captain said.

Forwards Successful

Backs Captain Andrew Pinkerton credited the forwards with the team's success.

"The forwards basically carried the team," Pinkerton said. "They played four full games, doing 15 to 20 scrums a game. But they still controlled all the games."

Forward Monte Giese (five tries) and Soren Oberg played especially strong on the weekend.

Harvard struggled in its first game Saturday against Siena, but still managed to maul its Empire State rivals, 14-0. The Crimson trounced its next two opponents (Amherst, 35-3, on Saturday afternoon and Maryland, 32-3, on Sunday Morning) to put the team in the finals against Brown.

Early Lead

Harvard jumped on Brown early, taking a 10-0 lead, but the Bears almost made it close near the end. Almost.

Brown scored three on a penalty kick. Harvard, however, registered a try with five minutes to go to put the game out a reach.