Word: game
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Each side consists of 15 players, including eight forwards and seven backs. No substitutions for any reason are allowed, and there are no time-outs or huddles. The game combines the continuous action of soccer and the crunching contact of football. Players wear a minimum of padding, the tackling is brutal, and pile-ons are tolerated until the runner gives up the ball and the chase resumes...
...incentive for varsity letters or League championships. But Harvard ruggers claim that if the sport were formalized and the team had to adhere to regular practice sessions, cuts, and training rules, the essence of Harvard rugby would be destroyed. "Most of the boys love the friendly informality of the game," Harvard captain Sione Tupounuia said last week, "and this would make them reluctant to see it changed to a varsity sport...
Sione, a native of Tonga in the South Pacific, has added a great deal of the tradition to Harvard rugby in the four years he has played. Moderately tall, but solidly built, with dark skin and thick curly hair, he has a ready smile and friendly manner. His post-game ritual, which he claims is "some sort of a Tonganese war dance," has become an eagerly anticipated feature of the Saturday morning matches. The rugby parties and pig roats he gives are notorious...
...always go out of our way to find places for teams to stay when they come to Cambridge," says scrumhalf Phill Ordway, "even if it's only a couch or a sleeping bag. If they'll come up and play us, we feel that the spirit of the game demands that we do our best to make them comfortable...
...majority of Harvard ruggers feel that the parties after the matches are inextricably linked to the rugby experience. "So much of the game springs from the 'rugger spirit,'" wing forward Bill Sargent explains, "that it's unheard of to just play a match and then go home. We always have plenty of beer on hand right after the game, and we really look forward to drinking and joking with someone who's been trying to knock the stuffing out of us all morning." The "rugger spirit" also helps to temper what is potentially an extremely rough game...