Ruggers Favored Over Engineers, Though Tech Holds Training Edge

The varsity Rugby team opens its season this afternoon on the House football field at 2:30 when it opposes M.I.T. The Engineers, despite a slight training edge gained during competition in Bermuda which the Crimson did not enjoy, will be the underdogs. The second squad will travel to Amherst to play a powerful Lord Jeff "second" team.

The Crimson will be handicapped against Tech, by the absence of one of its most experienced players, Jim Damis, but the outlook for the varsity, especially at the forwards, is excellent.

Among the more experienced players on the team will be center Bob Lemire, a Business School student who played football and rugby while an undergraduate at Yale. A second Business School man Dick Davis, will provide the Crimson with another veteran player. He played as an undergraduate at Stanford.

The varsity will also be very strong at the locks, with varsity football player Stan Merkel and a French lawyer, Phillipe Monnot both weighing well over 200 pounds, and should give the M.I.T. team a very busy afternoon.

The most unusual feature about the squad which takes the field this afternoon will be the presence of the three freshmen in its ranks. One of them, Langi Kavaliku is from Tongo, South Pacific, and he, along with the two other Yardlings will give the ruggers an experienced core around which to build squads over the next four years.