The little club team that could has reached the national spotlight.

On Saturday, the Harvard men’s rugby club will meet Army in the final four at Stanford. The Crimson hasn’t gone this far since 1993.

Should Harvard win, they will face either Air Force and top-ranked Cal-Berkeley— the only varsity rugby team in the nation—for the national championship on Sunday.

Harvard has lost only twice in the fall season—both times to Army. Nonetheless, the Crimson is unfazed.

“Army is a really disciplined team,” said Harvard co-captain, junior Marc Wayshak. “They’re mechanical about the way they play rugby. But we’re going to catch them off guard with our defense. It will make all that fall apart.”

Indeed, many saw the early season losses as learning experiences.

“As much as the losses hurt, they were a reminder that we had a little ways to go,” said senior Jake Kersey. “We refocused towards building to our ultimate goal, to qualify for the nationals.”

The Crimson has reached that goal and then some.

In the Sweet Sixteen—two weeks ago at Stanford—the 15-seed Harvard upset second-seeded Utah, in the first round, and went on to beat fifth-seeded Penn State by an even more decisive margin of 33 points.

“A lot of people, teammates and onlookers alike, didn’t really believe that we could do it until the spring season came around,” said Kersey.

Playing in the nationals seemed almost impossible when the program was reinstated four years ago after being temporarily disbanded.

“We’ve been building towards this for the past four years,” Kersey said.

The process has not been easy.

As a club team, rugby does not have the financial resources, recruiting process, or practice priority assigned to teams with varsity status.

While Army has enough players to field an A, B, C, and D squad, Harvard will show up with only two squads, A and B.