Watching the Harvard rugby club warm up for its big game against Connecticut last Saturday, co-captain Andrew Howard shook his head.

"To be honest, we had no expectations coming into this season," he said. "It was looking like a sort of hangover year. We graduated half our team from last year--some really good, committed athletes--and we were going with an unproven group of guys."

He paused.

"We've really come together, though."

That's how it's gone for this team, a small, quick, crisp-passing bunch. This fall, the rugby team surprised a lot of observers by just reaching the Connecticut match with a 4-0 record. With a 28-21 win over the Huskies, that record now stands at 5-0.

For the third time in the last four years, the regional title is once again in sight.

A New Cohesiveness

This story, though, goes beyond wins and losses. The ruggers, as they sometimes call themselves, already have a long history of that: Since their last national championship in 1984, the Harvard rugby club has emerged as a perennial contender for the nation's crown.

Last season's squad came within one win of the title game, losing to eventual champion California in the national semifinals in Houston, Tex.

The rugby club's reputation derives as much from its off-the-field exploits as those on it. Through the years, the squad has cultivated an image of Team Bacchanalia, showing up for its games aching from the previous night's excesses but still managing to win a lot more often than it loses.

Last spring, for instance, the team toured the Bahamas ("there's tremendous rugby competition down there," Match Secretary sophomore Chris Matarese said) and won all of its exhibitions despite nightly jaunts through the island bars. But this year's club, while carrying on the traditions of rowdiness and of winning, has set new standards of cohesiveness.

"This season, it's not just about whether we're ahead on the scoreboard," Coach Al Baker said. "It seems like there's more effort and togetherness as a team out there. And we need it, too, because we're not as big or experienced as we have been before."

Against Connecticut--one of Harvard's prime rivals for the New England Rugby Union title--the Crimson players looked 20 pounds lighter at every position across the starting lineup, and at the game's start it looked as if that size advantage would be too much for Harvard to overcome.

Connecticut quickly scored on penalty kick for a 3-0 lead and upped it to 8-0 after an effortless try (equivalent to a touchdown in football).

"After they got up in the first five minutes, I thought we were in real trouble," Matarese said.