Rugby

The Harvard rugby club tied for third place in the Commonwealth Cup last weekend in Virginia after splitting two contests in its tour of the Bahamas over spring break.

The Crimson defeated Washington Irish, a club squad, 10-6, in the first round of the Commonwealth Cup. Nathan Koenig connected on two penalty kicks and Chris Stefanoni ran five meters to tally a try.

In the semifinals, the ruggers were shellacked, 23-0, by Washington.

From there, the ruggers battled Northern Virgina to a 0-0 deadlock to tie for third place.

During the Bahamas trip, the ruggers were able to salvage a split against their foreign counterparts. Beck's Buccaneers slipped past Harvard in a disputed 19-15 match.

With Harvard ahead, 15-13, the referee was injured in a collision and one of the Buccaneers reserves filled in as referee.

On the disputed play, a Buccaneer appeared to run out of bounds, but he continued to run to score the try. In the aftermath, the fill-in referee overruled the line judge and awarded the Buccaneers the try.

In their other spring break outing, the ruggers battled to a scoreless tie with Baillour.

The ruggers have four contests in the next two weeks as they gear up for the Ivy League Tournament, to be held at Providence, R.I., April 18.

"I think [the trip] will help build team unity," match secretary Brandon Bradkin said. "We had a week to concentrate solely on rugby without the distractions of school work."