McKinley, who at lock calls the signals for the rest of the scrum, has been a leading scorer for the past three years. "It looks good," McKinley says. "We've got about fifty guys out for the team and nearly a dozen of those are football players."
However, the team has been hurt in its early season games by a lack of practice time. In March they had to practice evenings in Briggs Cage to save the field for games.
"It's hard to work on skills in there, but we've got a lot of talent, and with a little practice we should do pretty well," McKinley adds.
The club will get plenty of practice when it heads for Florida over spring break. On the first weekend it will compete in the Gainesville "Gator Tournament," which McKinley says is "the biggest rugby event in the south."
Among the sixteen teams entered in the tournament are clubs from Brown, Michigan, and Notre Dame.
After a week of practice in the hot Florida sun, the team will head for the University of Miami for a game under the lights, before returning to Harvard and a full slate against other eastern teams.