Members of the Yale rugby club gave their Harvard adversaries the shirts right off their backs Saturday.

The giving was not an act of generosity or even an early Christmas present. The two squads agreed a few weeks ago that the loser of the match Saturday would give up their uniforms. The Crimson ruggers took the uniforms home after capturing the game, 9-3.

"We were confident we would win, maybe a little overconfident," said Annor Ackah, the Crimson rugby club's president. "It made winning the game a little nicer."

The victory closes out one of the most successful fall seasons for Harvard (8-3). The Crimson allowed only seven trys, while outscoring opponents, 175-43. In comparison, Harvard wing Dave Bulger almost outscored Crimson opponents with five trys.

"I think it was slightly disappointing," Ackah said. "We probably had the best team we've had since 1984 [when Harvard captured the national championship], and we have nowhere to go."

Saturday's match against Yale was played on a muddy field, which hampered play. The Crimson had to look to its forward pack to dominate play instead of its experienced core of backs.

"I was standing in a pool of mud for the first half," Ackah said. "The game was much slower than usual, so there was more hitting than usual. We made our tackles, so in a way, the mud helped us."

Much of the game was played in Yale's end of the field. Harvard's forward pack kept the Elis bottled up in their end of the field.

Although the Crimson was unable to push the ball over for a try, Chris Liles came through by kicking three penalty kicks, all in the first half.

"We've had a tough time scoring in the last month," said Mike Newhouse, in his last game as Co-Captain along with Scott Tierney.