The men, meanwhile, failed in all three attempts to thwart the powerful visitors. McGill's A side pounded Harvard, 17-0, while the B and C sides ran up 4-3 and 18-0 victories.

"They are by far the best team we'll face all year," Harvard Captain will Thorndike said. "We were missing some guys, but we put out a good effort--we just played a better team."

The A side had to contend with the absence of coach and scrum half Martyn Kingston, fly half Geoff Gage and wing forward Dave Banks.

"We got off to a slow start, which has sort of been a problem all year," said Steve Rehmus, Kingston's replacement. "But in the second half we got our stuff together, and we were penetrating better."

In fact, the Crimson held the visitors to just six points in the second half.

"They [McGill] said it was one of the toughest matches they'd played this season," Rehmus noted.

For the B side, fly half Chris North sparked Harvard with his kicking.

The Crimson travels to New York this weekend for a pair of matches against club teams, and then rounds out its season with a contest against Yale in New Haven, Conn. the morning of The Game.