Everyone agrees, however, that the team needs to learn more basic rugby skills, and that the coaches are making the players learn them.

"They're not killing anybody. It's not like they're out there saying 'get your fat ass moving,' all the time," Whiting said.

Lauricella adds that he thinks the new discipline has brought out record numbers of athletes--as many as 50 at a practice--who are attracted by the new "spirit" and the chance to learn rugby well. "But we're still loose, informal and rough," he said.

In addition, Lauricella said, the team is anxious about putting on a good show in its spring trip to the Dominican Republic. The club will play three games, two of them against the Dominican national team.

"We're getting a lot of publicity hype in the Santo Domingo press," said Whiting. "They even asked us for a picture of our team."

The team's itinerary will include a formal reception at the American Embassy in Santo Domingo, "shirts and ties and all," Whiting added. "It's unprecedented for the rugby club to appear anywhere in coats and ties."

Only time will tell whether the rugby club's acquiescence to official standards of dress is a temporary break with tradition or a reflection of a new seriousness about the sport.

There is little doubt, however, that this spring's team is the fastest and most skillful that Harvard has seen in a long time. And whether or not many wins will be the club's first and only goal, it's likely there will be plenty.