Nomads Edge Rugby Team

A frustrated and angered Crimson rugby team dropped its final game of the season Saturday, 6 to 3, to the Toronto Nomads in the Stadium. Hampered by an exceptionally narrow field and discouraged by frequent penalties, the team put on one of its most ragged performances in losing to a team it should have beaten.

Toronto scored three points in the opening minutes on a short penalty kick, but the Crimson dominated play for the rest of the game. The home team tied it up later when Graham Russell scored on a 25-yard angle kick.

Late in the game, Toronto cinched the game, however, as its scrum half scored by picking the ball out of the scrum, an action that is illegal, according to the rule books, and diving over the goal line.

The Canadian referee issued to the Crimson a total of 15 penalties, one of which resulted in the Nomads' margin of victory. The Rugby Club president Bill Morse said after the game that the official, although certainly not partial to Toronto, interpreted the rules in a manner to which the Crimson was unaccustomed.

Morse claimed that the referee allowed the scrum hooker to advance his foot before the ball entered the scrum, a play that other refereess have strictly penalized.

The Crimson team's attack was hampered by the Stadium playing field, 25 yards narrower than regulation. The Crimson's faster three quarter line was prevented from running around the opposition's end because of the close side lines.

Throughout the game Harvard's Langy Kavaliku and Charlie Rowe, exceptionally fast wings, were unable to get the ball on many three quarter movements, and the attack thus lost much of its power. One of the times Rowe did have the ball, he raced 30 yards around the Nomad secondary, only to be tackled at the goal line. Many of the 400 spectators--and the Crimson team--thought Rowe had scored, but the ball was brought out for a scrum.