Boys will be boys.

And this weekend, the Harvard rugby team will probably be some very bad boys.

Licking its wounds after a triple-overtime loss to Brown and a week off after a cancellation by Rhode Island, the Crimson is raring for action.

"We're kind of like horses beginning a race," senior Lanny Thorndike said. "We're gnawing on the bit. We have a lot of pent-up aggression and we're ready to let loose."

Harvard will play in the New England Invitational tomorrow in Providence, R.I.

The Crimson last year fell to Brown in the first round of the N.E. Invitational. Harvard just two weeks ago fell to the Bruins in the finals of the Ivy League tournament in triple overtime.

"It will be a good tournament to win," Thorndike said. "We should have a really good weekend We're quietly cocky."

While the men will let off some aggression, the Radcliffe rugby club will take a more humane approach to this week's action.

"D" Up!

The ruggers are fresh off winning the first annual women's New England Invitational last week. The team will take on Connecticut, a squad which was a "B" Division entrant in last week's invitational.

Connecticut will be an unknown foe, however. Radcliffe has never played the team, and Connecticut did not show up at the N.E. tournament last weekend.

"It's hard to say how good they are, since we have never played them," Valerie Bogdan said. "But the win feels good right now after a hard weekend."

The Notebook: The Radcliffe B-side, a squad with all new players, fell in its first action of the year, 12-0, to Tufts yesterday at Soldiers Field.