Rugger Team Prepares for Bermuda Trip

BULLETIN: Rugby coach Ed Callahan announced late last night the travelling squad which will fly to Bermuda next Saturday to compete in the annual Rugby Week. The players are: Adams, Carey, Davis, Densmore, Eaton (capt.), Emerson, French, Green, Manning-Smith, McIntyre, Peabody, Schoch, Travis, Wheeler and White. Spares: Boucher, Calhoun and Fuller. Assistant coach Pat Lister will accompany the squad.

Howie Houston would probably have a hard time getting used to playing rugby. So would any other football player who has played the American style of football.

While the two types are basically alike the English version is a combination of both soccer and football and prohibits many features of the American game.

Rugger differs from American football in that the ball is constantly in motion unless a penalty is called and there are no regular plays. Because the action is fluid the coach can't influence actual playing, and the experienced player who can react to a certain situation in the right way will win the game.

Rugger demands a different approach and Coach Ed Callahan, the Harvard University Rugby Football Club's mentor and former Crimson player, has been pretty happy lately at the way his players have adapted themselves to the game.

"I am very pleased at the scrimmage results," says Callahan, talking about the workouts his squad has been having in the Briggs Cage. The rugger players have been putting in a lot of evening practice time lately because next Saturday they will fly to Bermuda for the annual Rugby Week.

This event has two objectives. It gives the Bermuda Chamber of Commerce, which pays some of the participating teams' expenses, a chance to increase its tourist trade. On the other hand, rugger enthusiasts can play against the best opposition in the East.

Contrary to an article in Life magazine last spring, the Rugby Club will have considerably more to do than romp around at beach parties. The schedule for the Bermuda Week does list a few parties on the sands, but during the week Callahan's players will meet Princeton, Yale, and experienced squads from the Royal Navy, the Bermuda AA, and the British Army.

Callahan isn't quite sure just how the Crimson squad will emerge from this stiff competition. Poor weather has confined its practice to the Briggs Cage "dustbowl." Furthermore, he points out that "it's pretty hard to tell anything about the squad before it has played in actual competition." He does admit that the club will be out to avenge the terrible 31-0 beating they got from the Tigers last year and to win the traditional Yale game.

Aside from actual playing experience the squad will pick up during vacation. Callahan doesn't rate the Bermuda week very highly. His main interest is building up the Rugby Club to its prewar strength, when it won the Eastern Rugby Union trophy cup three years in a row.

The war broke up the former domination and since then the teams have had poor seasons. Last year the club was completely disorganized and lost all its games.

The spring, however, should see a rugby renaissance at Soldiers Field