Killer B's Take Tourney

Last week, the ruggers were smug, even arrogant, content to lounge around in their newly-won jackets, drinking their favorite beer out of their favorite mugs. You might say they had a right to be--after 18 straight victories, an Ivy League trophy, and a trip to the National Championships.

After a grueling 7 games in 8 days, the first team planned to sit and rest its sores instead of playing in the now meaningless New England Championships.

But Sunday night, the ruggers went into shock. Steve Rihtoul and Charlie Bott had just accepted the New England Championship trophy after the Crimson--consisting primarily of B-side players--defeated Western Massachusetts, Amherst, UMass, and Dartmouth.

The Killer B's as they are known, surprised everyone but themselves by triumphing over some of the best teams in New England, teams that were aiming to embarass the Eastern Champs.

As expected, many of the Jacques Driscolls and Mark Cooleys showed that they could be standouts on almost any other first team in the country. Although less celebrated than their yellow-jacketed teammates, they too have passed the spring with an undefeated record.

Until the New Englands, few of the players themselves had realized that Harvard had become a rugby powerhouse. During this past weekend, first-side wing-forward Richie Ioriq looked back at his infrequent teammates, and spoke for the team, "I was so amazed that we were winning and doing it so convincingly."

In rugby, chalkboard talk and rigid discipline is left to teams like Army and Navy. Against UMass, in typical rugby fasion, 13 Crimson ruggers ran onto the field just 30 seconds before kickoff after what Keith Oberg said "was a longer than expected stay at Smith."

Once on the field, the ruggers' attention turned to surprising their opponents with creative strategies in their toughest match of the tournament.

As the game went into overtime, Harvard huddled before kicking off and Bott outlined two moves to catch UMass off-guard. First, Bott would kick the ball uncharacteristically deep, hoping that a ruck or maul would form before the defenders could run or kick the ball upfield.

Then, if Harvard won a scrum, half Tim Endicott would dummy a pass to his backs, hoping to draw an opposing player offside and setting the sure-footed Bott up for an easy penalty kick to win the match.

The referee, who had been standing near the Harvard players, approached Bott and said the play would never work. He also did not believe that Babe Ruth could hit to centerfield.

A few minutes later he stood watching in disbelief as Harvard's winning kick split the uprights, allowing Harvard to win its second crucial game in two weeks on the basis of scrum half fakes. For the twenty-second game in a row, Harvard rugby took no prisoners.