Prospects Bright for Rugby Club; Season Opens With Tour of Dixie

To the novice fan, rugby seems to be a wild melee where 30 barbarians madly pursue a weird-looking ball, as if it were a shapely wench, and they were just back from sacking a city.

If that fan sticks around for a while, he'll see rugby as a game that has incorporated the rougher aspects of football and soccer and bound them with a tradition of sportsmanship both on and off the field.

The members of the Harvard Rugby Club strongly believe in that tradition. They are working hard this year to dispel any adverse image Harvard rugby has had in the past.

In keeping with this goal, the club has discarded the traditional spring vacation trip to Bermuda and substituted a Southern tour which schedules five games in seven days. The team will face some of the toughest clubs in the South, including the University of Virginia, undefeated last year. The trip, along with providing the stiff competition the team needs, will re-establish Harvard's recently sagging rugby relations with the Southern schools.

Captain Quentin Spector and President Lloyd Macdonald have been driving the team through hard night practices in Carey Cage in preparation for the season which starts April 3 in Richmond, Va. An unprecedented 50 members from all over the University have come out for the spring team.

Freshman Sione Tupouniua from the Tonga Islands looms as the front line (or scrum's) top prospect. Sione came out for the team in the fall, wanting to play barefoot a la Michigan State kicker Dick Kenney. He competed in one game without shoes before giving in to the concern his fellow players had for his health. But that didn't harm his play. Sione's speedy 210 pounds has made him a feared tackler of enemy ball-carriers.

Sophomore Paul Buddenhagen also will bolster the speed of the scrum. A former end in high school football and a good ball handler, he specializes in stealing the ball from opposing runners. Buddenhagen, who learned the game in England, also helps Macdonald and Spector coach the team.

Football players Pete Peterson and Steve Diamond typify the rugby tradition. They are nice guys off the field, but once playing, they love to hit. They, along with Buzzy Marks, the fall's high scorer, will anchor the scrum.

Backs John Hutchinson, professor of Physics and dean of Harvard rugby, and Mike Burbank will be strongly challenged for their jobs by the newcomers, John Dickinson, John Woodman, Steve Zeitian, and John Lightbody, all of whom should provide needed scoring punch. Dickinson played for the Argentine National Junior Team, and, at only 130 pounds, plays the tough fullback position as well as anyone Harvard ruggers have ever seen. His fine kicking ability should keep the ball out of trouble.

After the Southern trip, the team will play an eight-game schedule. Perennial power Cornell will probably provide the toughest competition, although Dartmouth, whom the club will play on May 7 for the Manchester Cup, always fields a strong team.

The team should have a good season, if hard-running but injury-prone Macdonald can stay healthy, and if the newcomers live up to expectations. But, as Spector and Macdonald point out, a losing season isn't necessarily an unsuccessful one.

After seeing the victorious players form two lines at the end of a game and clap their losing opponents off the field, one can believe them.